After the Fifth Plenum...Chinese vice premiers put power infrastructure and AI integration front and center

[Financial News] In local inspection tours following the Fifth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee, which laid the groundwork for Xi Jinping’s fourth term, China’s vice premiers delivered a series of messages emphasizing the integrated development of power infrastructure and computing networks, as well as the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into industry.
According to Xinhua News Agency on the 3rd, Vice Premier He Lifeng, China’s economic chief, visited Datong, Shuozhou and other areas in Shanxi Province on the 1st and 2nd, inspecting energy companies, science and technology companies, agricultural product processing and trading companies, and wind and solar infrastructure projects.
He called for an integrated push to develop new energy, strengthen ecological protection and governance, and transform the resource-based economy, and to accelerate the conversion of resource advantages into drivers of high-quality economic development.
He Lifeng went on to stress that the coal industry should accelerate technological upgrades and equipment replacement to advance its modernization, smart transformation and green transition. He also said that the country should make full use of its advantages in power, hydropower, climate and location to accelerate the coordinated development of computing and power and the construction of computing networks, while taking a range of measures to expand effective investment.
Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing visited companies in fields including smart power grids and new materials in Nanjing and Huai’an, Jiangsu Province, on the 1st and 2nd.
Zhang said that next-generation smart manufacturing should be vigorously developed to guide and support more companies in their digital and intelligent transformation, and that the development of vertical industry models and AI agents should be accelerated. He added that the industrial data foundation should be strengthened and AI applied in depth across areas including research, development and design; pilot testing before mass production; production and manufacturing; and operations and management.
He stressed that support for small and medium-sized enterprises should be strengthened through the “specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative” (zhuanjingtexin) approach.
Zhang stressed that support should be provided to help small and medium-sized enterprises with their own areas of expertise increase research and development investment and secure advanced technologies of their own, and that large companies should support them by opening up their supply chains.
Zhang also called on the authorities to address the problem of large companies delaying payments owed to small and medium-sized enterprises, and to establish dynamic business management that allows both market entry and exit.

[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, international affairs correspondent Reporter