China designates a rotating list of "strategic emerging industries" (战略性新兴产业) in each Five-Year Plan. The 14th FYP (2021-2025) named seven: new-generation information technology, biotech, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy vehicles, and energy conservation / environmental protection. The 15th FYP (2026-2030) is expected to add commercial space and quantum to the formal list, consistent with the 2025 CNSA action plan and the State Council's January 2026 draft NEV / intelligent-vehicle roadmap.
This theme tracks the sector-specific positive industrial-policy instruments for these non-chip strategic sectors — fund creation, government procurement mandates, infrastructure access, regulatory harmonisation, and "go global" integration — as distinct from the demand-pull stimulus of china-domestic-demand-stimulus.
What it includes
1. 2025-11-25 CNSA Commercial Space Action Plan 2025-2027 (severity 3): 22-measure plan opening national R&D programmes and launch infrastructure to private operators, establishing a national commercial space development fund, directing government procurement toward commercial launch vehicles and satellites, and unifying provincial standards. Affects LandSpace, Galactic Energy, iSpace, Space Pioneer, Orienspace, and the Guowang / G60 / Qianfan megaconstellation operators.
Why this regime matters
- State-directed capital into non-chip sectors follows the Big Fund playbook
(filed: china-semiconductor-self-reliance) and signals China's intent to apply the same equity-investment model to commercial space and adjacent strategic sectors.
- Government procurement as guaranteed demand base de-risks private-firm capex
in capital-intensive hardware (reusable rockets, high-throughput satellites) — mirroring the NASA COTS / Commercial Crew model but delivered through directed procurement.
- "Go global" integration extends strategic-sector industrial policy into China's
South-South diplomacy stack, creating dual-use commercial / geopolitical leverage in developing-nation markets (satellite internet, GPS-alternative navigation).