Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region advances coordinated development in building int'l tech innovation hub

China

Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region advances coordinated development in building int'l tech innovation hub

2025-12-22 16:44 Last Updated At：12-23 15:07

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in north China is making great strides in coordinated development to build a world-class scientific and technological innovation center.

The Zhongguancun Science Park in Beijing has already become a multi trillion-yuan level industrial cluster. Covering less than 4 percent of the city's area, this dynamic hub produces roughly one-third of Beijing's gross regional product.

It has incubated over 200 domestically developed large models, nearly 30 percent of the national total, and made significant breakthroughs in frontier fields such as quantum technology and artificial intelligence.

Over 90 unicorn companies have emerged from Zhongguancun, fueling industrial upgrades. By 2025, the total revenue of enterprises in Zhongguancun is projected to surpass 10 trillion yuan (about 1.42 trillion U.S. dollars), underscoring its role as a leading innovation highland.

"Unicorn enterprises" generally refer to unlisted companies that have been established for no more than 10 years, have a valuation of more than 1 billion U.S. dollars, and possess unique core technologies, unique competitive advantages and market potential.

President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, has always cared about the development of Zhongguancun.

In September 2013, the Political Bureau of the 18th CPC Central Committee held a group study session in Zhongguancun, the first time such a session has been held outside the central authority's seat at Zhongnanhai.

Presiding over the session, Xi stressed the importance of science and technology in enhancing national strength, saying that innovation is a global trend and also what China needs.

"During the group study session, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that Zhongguancun should accelerate its journey toward becoming a globally influential science and technology innovation center. He said 'we must not wait, we must not sit on the fence, and we must not slack off', urging and motivating us to seize the opportunities brought by the new round of technological revolutions and industrial transformations. His instructions have pointed out directions for Beijing's technological innovation and Zhongguancun's development, securing the strategic initiative for us," said Yang Pu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and Administrative Commission of Zhongguancun Science Park.

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2021-2025), based on innovation-driven development and the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, Xi emphasized that Beijing's advantages in scientific and technological innovation and Tianjin's advantages in advanced manufacturing research and development should be combined to help qualified areas in Hebei better undertake industrial transfer.

Following this blueprint, Beijing has intensified its efforts. The Huairou Science City (HSC) is about to launch its high-energy synchrotron radiation source into trial operation at the end of this year, with 29 major scientific facilities already in active research.

Overall, Beijing has established 145 key laboratories at the national level and 10 new research institutions, reinforcing its strategic scientific infrastructure.

At the Zhongguancun Science Park in the Xiong'an New Area of Hebei Province, 11 Beijing-based platforms and institutions specializing in science and technology, finance and industrial research have been integrated into a one-stop service, enabling enterprises to access cutting-edge resources without leaving the area.

Furthermore, Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei have jointly funded over 220 basic research projects, forming collaborative innovation teams that pool regional strengths.

The Central Economic Work Conference held earlier this month stressed that it would be essential to enhance innovation-driven development to accelerate the cultivation of new growth drivers, and decided to expand the scope of the International Center for Science and Technology Innovation in Beijing to cover the whole Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

"The expansion of the International Center for Science and Technology Innovation is a major strategic move personally planned, deployed and promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping. It signifies that China's strategy for scientific and technological innovation has shifted from individual breakthroughs to a new model of regional integrated and coordinated operations, marking an upgrade of national strategy, and injecting strong momentum into accelerating the formation of a major source of original innovation in our country and jointly forging a strategic fulcrum for building China into a science and technology powerhouse," said Wan Zhe, a professor at Beijing Normal University.

Greek scholar hails classical studies as East-West bridge

A Greek scholar has shed light on the multi-layered value of classical studies, asserting that modern civilizations can deepen their understandings of themselves, each other, and the challenges they face through the lens of ancient wisdom.

On the sidelines of the just-concluded World Conference of Classics held in Athens, Greece, Professor Myrto Garani of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens said that Greek and Chinese intellectual traditions, despite giving different answers to life's fundamental questions, offer complementary paths to wisdom that remain urgently relevant today.

"The two civilizations clearly faced many of the same fundamental questions. That is what interests us, and that is why it is so valuable to gather here in Athens and discuss the concerns shared by both peoples since antiquity. We may have arrived at different answers. However, by examining the different ways in which we approached these questions, we can also reconsider the answers that our own civilization produced. In doing so, we gain a deeper understanding of one another. That is the real value of this dialogue and the reason we continue to explore these questions in greater depth," said Garani.

The professor said that she urges young people who view the classics as outdated or irrelevant to consider that ancient wisdom equips modern minds with essential tools for navigating today's crises.

"Classical studies will obviously not provide direct answers to the climate crisis or the energy crisis, for example. But they can help us cultivate our thinking and our judgment. The way people confronted fundamental questions in the past can help us respond to the challenges of the present. I believe this is one of the greatest things we can gain from classical studies. They encourage comprehensive thinking and critical judgment. They also allow us to examine the values of antiquity and understand how those values can be adapted and applied today," said Garani.

Held from June 9 to 10 under the theme "Dialogue Between Ancient and Modern Civilizations: Contemporary Inspiration from Classical Wisdom," the Second World Conference of Classics brought together more than 200 scholars, researchers and cultural representatives from Asia, Europe, Africa and North America.

This year's gathering highlighted the contemporary relevance of classical civilizations, exploring how ideas drawn from ancient traditions can offer insights into governance, ethics, social development and international relations amid evolving global challenges.