Zhang Guoqing, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, conducted research in Shanghai on the 9th and 10th, according to a report published by The Paper on November 10, 2026.

He stressed the need to thoroughly carry out General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important instructions and the spirit of the fifth plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, implement decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, steadily advance the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation with industrial innovation, continue to raise industrial innovation capacity, and better support high-quality economic development.

Zhang visited enterprises in industries including instrumentation and medical equipment. He inspected laboratories and production workshops and asked enterprise leaders, research and development staff, and frontline workers about production, operations, research, and innovation.

He said scientific and technological supply and industrial demand should both provide direction: high-quality scientific and technological supply should empower industrial innovation, while demand for higher-end, greener, and smarter industry should pull scientific and technological innovation, so that innovation results are turned more quickly into real productive forces. He called for stronger basic research focused on weak links in key fields, and for breakthroughs in advanced basic processes, key basic materials, and basic components, in order to reinforce the technological base of industrial development.

He also called for a mechanism that links research and application in converting innovation results, stronger specialized services in intellectual property, startup incubation, and science-and-technology finance, and more open, shared application scenarios. The aim he described was an unbroken innovation chain running from technological breakthroughs and pilot testing to application and iterative upgrading.

On the innovation environment, he urged deeper collaboration among large, medium-sized, and small enterprises and among upstream and downstream firms, and said large enterprises should be guided to open application scenarios and supply chains to smaller firms. He described traditional industries as a basic support for economic growth and for jobs and incomes, and said advanced technology should be used more deeply to empower them and support their high-quality development.

Zhang also visited relevant grassroots departments and units and held discussions with city, district, and town officials and enterprise representatives, hearing their views and suggestions.

He stressed creating new consumption scenarios, improving the consumption environment, continuing to expand the supply of quality goods and services, and promoting consumption upgrading. He said greater attention should be paid to combining “hard investment” with “soft construction,” and that construction of the “six networks” should be used as an opportunity to strengthen project reserves and preparatory work and to advance major projects according to local conditions.

He called for further progress on a unified national market, stronger binding constraints from fair-competition review, deeper comprehensive action against “involutionary” competition, and a fair and orderly market environment. He also said practical difficulties facing the grassroots and business entities should be addressed promptly, efforts to clear payments owed to enterprises should be increased, employment for key groups should be kept stable, the bottom line of the grassroots “three guarantees” should be secured, and the momentum of steady economic improvement should be consolidated and extended.

Source: The Paper