Apertura: New Focus, Continuous Purpose.
China's 15th Five-Year Plan, approved 12 March 2026, is the most AI-focused planning document in Chinese history.
The Development: China's 15th Five-Year Plan, approved 12 March 2026, is the most AI-focused planning document in Chinese history. AI appears 52 times (up from 11 in its predecessor), computing power gets its own chapter, and a new doctrine — 模芯云用 (model-chip-cloud-application) — treats the full AI stack as a single national system. The "AI+" initiative targets 90% economic integration by 2030.
Why It Matters: The plan names seven strategic future industries: quantum, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied intelligence, 6G, and next-generation intelligent systems. Capital, regulation, and procurement follow the plan.
The Strategic Collision: This is China's fifteenth consecutive five-year technology plan. The US has cycled through four substantively different technology policy positions in twelve years. The EU has produced three AI governance frameworks without fully implementing the first.
Read tbe general report here.
The Real Risks:
