The 863 program (
Chinese: 863计划) or State High-Tech Development Plan (
Chinese: 国家高技术研究发展计划) is a program funded and administered by the government of the
People's Republic of China intended to stimulate the development of advanced technologies in a wide range of fields for the purpose of rendering China independent of financial obligations for foreign technologies.[1] It was inspired by the
Strategic Defense Initiative proposed by
U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan in 1983, and was absorbed alongside
Program 973 into the "National Key R&D Program" in 2016.[2][3][4]
Among the products known to have resulted from the 863 program are the
Loongson computer processor family (originally named Godson), the
Tianhe supercomputers and the
Shenzhou spacecraft.[9][10]
Named after its date of establishment (March 1986, 86/3 by the Chinese
date format), the 863 Program was proposed in a letter to the Chinese government by scientists
Wang Daheng,
Wang Ganchang,
Yang Jiachi, and
Chen Fangyun and endorsed by
Deng Xiaoping.[11] After its implementation during the
Seventh Five-Year Plan, the program continued to operate through the two five-year plans that followed, with state financing of around 11 billion RMB and an output of around 2000 patents (national and international).[12]
In 2001, under the
Tenth Five-Year Plan, the program was reevaluated in consultation with foreign experts. The result was a widened focus to strengthen the competitiveness of China in the global economy.[13] The evaluation practice has been included into the program as a project management system.[13]
In a 2011 court case, Chinese-born scientist
Huang Kexue was found guilty of stealing commercial secrets from US-based corporations and passing at least some of this information to the 863 program.[14]
Outline
The program initially focused on seven key technological fields:[15]
^Wu, Hequan (6 August 2002). "The progress of communication technology subject of hi-tech research development plan of China". WCC 2000 - ICCT 2000. 2000 International Conference on Communication Technology Proceedings (Cat. No.00EX420). Vol. 1.
Beijing. pp. 3–4.
doi:
10.1109/ICCT.2000.889157.
ISBN0-7803-6394-9.
S2CID60832883.{{
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