Throughout China’s annual legislative meeting, the national leader Xi Jinping made clear that he wants nothing to hold back his plans for China to march past its rivals by becoming a technological superpower. Not the economic slowdown or heavy local government debt, nor a trade war with the US.

The meeting in Beijing, called the National People’s Congress, was once a stage for Communist Party leaders to make a show of public consultation. Congress delegates, although handpicked by the party, sometimes chided officials over problems like pollution. There were even rare flashes of discord among senior officials.

Xi, though, has turned the meeting into a meticulously orchestrated, week-long salute to himself and his vision. This time, he urged China to forge ahead in advanced technologies including artificial intelligence, biotechnology and new weapons.

“Xi has seen how decades of investment into science by the US government after World War II was a knockout success for the US, and wants to replicate that,” said Jimmy Goodrich, who studies China’s science policies as a senior adviser at RAND Corporation.

“He believes strongly that only by being more self-sufficient and a global leader in science can China achieve success in upgrading its economy, boosting its military capabilities and achieving world-leader status,” Goodrich said.

Xi’s implicit message is that other efforts, such as restoring the confidence of China’s private entrepreneurs, must align with that bigger national goal.

The meeting allows Xi to give his priorities the gloss of public approval. Dissenting votes from the nearly 3,000 delegates have become exceedingly rare. (The only element of intrigue was the absence of Zhao Leji, the chairman of the congress, on Tuesday as the session closed.)

Xi’s agenda told the story. On the first day of the congress, Xi met delegates from Jiangsu Province — an industrial powerhouse — and told them to “seize on scientific and technological innovation.”

New York Times News Service