Amid a high-stakes global tech race, Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for greater efforts to boost the country’s basic research and innovation capabilities by expanding its talent pool and fostering a culture of tolerance.

“Basic research is the source of the entire scientific system and the main switch for all technical challenges,” Xi said at a symposium on strengthening the country’s basic research in Shanghai on Thursday.

Xi argued that global tech rivalries were increasingly pivoting towards basic and frontier fields, making “original and disruptive innovation” even more important.

To further bolster basic research, the Chinese leader called for an integrated strategy to cultivate and mobilise talent, expanding the professional cohort with a specific emphasis on identifying and nurturing researchers on the front lines.

China should also gradually increase the proportion of funding allocated to basic research to create a diversified investment landscape, Xi added.

In 2025, Beijing invested nearly 280 billion yuan (US$41 billion) in research and development, accounting for 7.08 per cent of the country’s total R&D expenditure.