China's Technology Landscape
China has emerged as a major technology power through decades of state-directed industrial policy, massive research investment, and a strategic push for self-reliance in critical technologies. The country's technological evolution has drawn global scrutiny[^c1], intensified by US-China strategic competition that has reshaped global supply chains across multiple sectors.
Since the launch of Made in China 2025, the country has pursued dominance across ten priority sectors. By some estimates, China has invested over $250 billion in semiconductor manufacturing since 2019[^c2] and achieved approximately 86% of the plan's goals[^c3]. China became the world's largest R&D spender in 2024, with OECD data measuring its expenditure at approximately $1 trillion[^c24], and by 2025 its R&D intensity reached 2.8% of GDP (~3.9 trillion yuan), surpassing the OECD average for the first time[^c19].
By mid-2026, US export controls had driven a fundamental restructuring of China's technology landscape. Nvidia's share of China's AI accelerator market fell from 95% before sanctions to zero, with CEO Jensen Huang publicly confirming the company had completely exited the market[^c29]. Huawei's AI chip revenue was projected to reach $12 billion in 2026 as domestic alternatives entirely replaced foreign chips in state-funded data centers. China's LineShine supercomputer, built entirely with domestically developed processors, ranked first on the global TOP500 list[^c30]. The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) reinforced the trajectory with AI as its central focus, targeting a 10 trillion yuan AI sector valuation by 2030[^c12].
In embodied intelligence, China elevated humanoid robots to a national strategic priority for the first time in March 2025, and by 2026 the sector encompassed over 230 companies with a market value of $11.4 billion[^c31]. China also achieved major milestones in advanced materials, launching the world's first 4-meter-wide T1100-grade carbon fiber production line[^c32], and in nuclear fusion, completing the world's largest reactor superconducting magnet with entirely domestic technology.
The decoupling has spread from trade to capital markets, with SpaceX and OpenAI blocking Chinese investors, while Beijing regulators have forced companies with cross-border operations to structurally separate their China and international businesses[^c39]. The global technology landscape is fragmenting as a result of these dynamics, with analysts describing a shift from economic interdependence to selective decoupling[^c5] and experts warning that "a new kind of iron curtain" is descending in technology[^c6]. China has shifted from a purely defensive posture to actively managing outflows of its own advanced technologies through a comprehensive export control framework covering 63 technology areas[^c20], while launching the World Data Organization to shape global digital governance standards.