China maps out innovation-focused economic agenda for 2026

China will step up efforts to foster new growth drivers through innovation-led development as the country charts its economic work for the coming year, a senior official said on Friday.

Addressing the 2025-2026 Annual Conference on China's Economy in Beijing on Saturday, Han Wenxiu, executive deputy director of the Office of the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, said economic work next year should remain firmly focused on innovation-driven development and accelerate the cultivation and expansion of new growth engines.

"It is essential to promote industrial upgrading through scientific and technological innovation and continuously foster new quality productive forces. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has successively launched the construction of three international science and technology innovation centers in Beijing, Shanghai and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which have made notable progress in recent years," Han noted.

He noted that building high-level innovation platforms is a key step in strengthening China's capacity for original innovation and supporting the country's long-term development strategy.

"The CPC Central Committee has decided to expand the Beijing International Center for Science and Technology Innovation to cover the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the Shanghai International Science and Technology Innovation Center to the Yangtze River Delta, with the aim of accelerating the formation of major sources of original innovation and jointly building strategic pillars for the development of China into a science and technology powerhouse," the official continued.

China maps out innovation-focused economic agenda for 2026

California and a coalition of 19 other states are suing the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump over its policy to hike fees on new H-1B visa petitions to 100,000 U.S. dollars, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday.

The Trump administration announced in September to impose the fee for H-1B visas, claiming that the non-immigrant visa program "has been deliberately exploited to replace, rather than supplement, American workers with lower-paid, lower-skilled labor."

Bonta said in a declaration that, as president, Trump has no authority to impose this fee. The declaration pointed out that significantly increasing this visa fee has brought various adverse effects on industries such as education and healthcare in the United States.

Trump announced in September the imposition of sharply higher visa fees, saying the move is intended to ensure that the U.S. brings in high-skilled talent that cannot be replaced by American workers. Previously, companies typically paid several thousand U.S. dollars in fees for H-1B visas.

U.S. media analyses say the new high visa fees will affect technology giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa in the United States that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations. This visa is designed for highly qualified individuals, including those in fields such as technology, engineering, and healthcare.

Twenty U.S. states sue Trump's fee hike of H-1B visas