President Xi Jinping visits an exhibition on China's science and technology achievements during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) in Beijing on Friday. He urged Chinese scientists to make China a vanguard of innovation-driven development. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi and other State officials visit exhibition that displays nation's scientific achievements

China's top leadership showed on Friday its determination to encourage national technological development by appearing as a group at a major exhibition.

Four days previously, President Xi Jinping set a national target for the development of science and technology at the National Technology and Innovation Conference in Beijing.

On Friday, while inspecting the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) Technology and Innovation Achievements Exhibition in Beijing, Xi demanded that all S&T workers in China do their utmost to help restore the Chinese nation to its former glory.

The president spent the whole morning at the exhibition, looking through many booths, such as the displays of a smart-plant factory, robot for orthopedic surgery, and super computer, as well as new energy vehicles.

Six of the seven members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee went to the exhibition on Friday－Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli was on a foreign trip.

The exhibition, which opened on Wednesday, runs through Thursday at the Beijing Exhibition Center.

An official at Aviation Industry Corporation of China who declined to be named said AVIC briefed Xi on the latest developments China's large aircraft project.

"He was pleased to hear that we conducted independent research and development in the process," he said.

Du Xiaoli, vice-president of Lenovo Corporate Research & Development, told the leaders that the use of Chinese-made computer technology made a great leap forward in the past five years.

"We are confident that by the end of the decade, 90 percent of desktop computers in government offices will be self-developed ones," he said.

Du said the leaders' group visit provided "great encouragement" to people working in technology.

Xi said on Monday that China should establish itself as an innovative country by 2020, as a leading innovator by 2030 and ultimately a world S&T power by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2049.

The president stressed the role of S&T as the bedrock upon which "the country relies for its power, enterprises rely for success, and people rely for a better life".

Xi also warned that China faces a major S&T bottleneck and a large gap in innovation capacity.

"The situation－in which our country is under the control of others in core technologies in key fields－has not fundamentally changed, and China's S&T foundation remains weak," Xi said at the conference.

"Currently, the State needs the strategic support of science and technology more urgently than at any other time in the past."

Academies study selection reforms

The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are looking into reforming the method of appointing members, a senior science official has said.

The academies have gathered suggestions to nominate candidate academicians on recommendations from existing members, said Bai Chunli, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at a plenary meeting of the Academician Conference in Beijing, which concluded on Friday.

"Many academicians have long urged us to do this, and they say they hope to see a unified approach adopted during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20)," said Bai, also executive chairman of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' academic division, which serves as an advanced think tank for the government on science and technology issues.

"We think it's a good idea and will create conditions to make it happen step by step."

Bai said there are currently more than 100 channels through which academicians are recommended and selected.

A reason put forward for using member recommendations is the thought that the nominations would be motivated by academic criteria. At the plenary session on Wednesday, Bai said the academy will work on building itself into a more advanced national think tank by making use of high-level resources both domestically and abroad.

"We will focus on important science and technology issues and grasping development trends in science and technology worldwide," he said.