Preface
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In my 2019 year-end summary, I recorded the 35 (previously written as 34) top technologies in which we were once choke-pointed by foreign countries. I recently had some time to sort out the progress: as of 2026, we have broken through 12 of them. I hope everyone remembers these — once the deepest pains in our hearts. We must forge ahead with vigor and persevere through hard times.
A Progress Review of the 35 “Choke Point” Technologies (2018→2026)
Original source: Science and Technology Daily’s series of reports that ran for three months in 2018
Personal blog archive: https://www.sunyazhou.com/2019/12/FinalSummary/
Latest progress tracking: https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260313A04KF700 (Tencent News, 2026-03-13)
Original WeChat article (now banned): https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ms2TbtZyEHYqoQGHQrJY5A
I. Breakthroughs Achieved (12)
| No. | Technology | Representative Companies | Key Progress |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | LiDAR | Huawei, Hesai | Hesai ranked #1 globally with a 32% market share in 2024; costs cut to 1/10 of international levels |
| 29 | Lithium battery separators | Enjie (38%), Senior Technology | #1 global market share; helped drive global lithium battery costs down by 30%+ |
| 6 | Vacuum evaporation machines | Hefei Sineva | Broke the Canon Tokki monopoly; domestic units account for 40% of installations in China |
| 24 | Tunnel boring machine main bearings | Luoyang LYC Bearing | 50,000-hour lifespan on par with Germany; 70% domestic share |
| 3 | Operating systems | Huawei HarmonyOS | 800M+ installed base; the world’s third-largest mobile operating system |
| 9 | Heavy-duty gas turbines | AECC | H-class heavy-duty turbines in mass production, with 64% efficiency |
| 14 | ITO targets | Acetron | Domestic share over 60%; supplies BOE/TCL |
| 17 | Ultra-hard carbide end mills | Zhuzhou ZCCCT | 60% domestic share; maintenance costs cut by 40% |
| 25 | Microspheres | Suzhou NanoMicro | Domestic share over 50%; meets 8K panel demand |
| 30 | Medical imaging device components | United Imaging, Mindray | Domestic products account for 45% of the mid-to-high-end equipment market |
| 32 | High-end epoxy resins | Sinopec Baling Petrochemical | Domestic share over 70%; performance on par with Dow of the US |
| 5 | Tactile sensors | Shenzhen Chujue Intelligent | 55% domestic share; 0.1mm precision |
II. Still Under Development (23)
| No. | Technology | Bottleneck | Global Leaders |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EUV lithography machines | Coordination of 100,000 parts, 2nm synchronization precision for dual wafer stages, extreme ultraviolet light sources | ASML (Netherlands), Cymer (US), Zeiss (Germany) |
| 2 | High-speed chips (≥25Gbps) | Insufficient modulation rates; domestic power consumption 20% higher | Broadcom/Cisco (US), NEC (Japan) |
| 4 | Aero engine nacelles | Aerodynamic design/noise reduction/lightweighting; domestic designs have 15% higher drag | UTC (US), Rolls-Royce (UK), Safran (France) |
| 7 | Mobile RF components | 5G mmWave filters; domestic localization below 20% | Skyworks/Qorvo (US, 70%), Murata (Japan) |
| 8 | iCLIP technology | RNA-protein binding site recognition rate below 30% (international 70%+) | Harvard/MIT (US), ETH (Switzerland) |
| 11 | Aviation airworthiness standards | 15,000 hours of validation required; only 3,000 completed | FAA (US), EASA (Europe) |
| 12 | High-end capacitors and resistors | High-precision (±0.1%) consistency yield below 60% | Murata/TDK (Japan), Kemet (US) |
| 13 | Core industrial software (EDA/CAE) | EDA below 14nm; CAE simulation error 5% vs. international 1% | Synopsys/ANSYS (US), Dassault (France), Siemens (Germany) |
| 15 | Industrial robot core algorithms | Force control error ±0.5N vs. international ±0.1N; 30% slower response | FANUC/Yaskawa (Japan), KUKA (Germany), ABB (Switzerland) |
| 16 | Aviation steel (300M steel) | Oxygen content 15ppm vs. international 10ppm; fatigue life 25% shorter | ATI (US), Eramet (France) |
| 18 | High-end bearing steel | Inclusion control; fatigue life is 1/2 of SKF’s | SKF (Sweden), Timken (US), NSK (Japan) |
| 19 | High-pressure piston pumps (35MPa+) | Lifespan only 1/3 of Bosch’s | Bosch Rexroth (Germany), Parker (US) |
| 20 | Aviation design software | Computation time 50% higher than Dassault’s | Dassault CATIA (France), ANSYS (US) |
| 21 | EUV photoresists | 99.9999% purity; support for process nodes below 3nm | Shin-Etsu Chemical/TOK (Japan, 90%), Dow (US) |
| 22 | High-pressure common rail systems | Fuel injection error ±3% vs. Bosch’s ±1% | Bosch (Germany), Denso (Japan), Cummins (US) |
| 23 | Transmission electron microscopes | 3D reconstruction resolution 3Å vs. FEI’s 1.5Å | FEI (US), Hitachi/JEOL (Japan), Zeiss (Germany) |
| 26 | Underwater connectors | 10,000m deep-sea sealing; signal rates below 10Gbps | Teledyne (US), Sofrance (UK) |
| 27 | Fuel cell key materials | MEA mass-production consistency 60% vs. Toyota’s 90% | Toyota/Panasonic (Japan), Plug Power (US) |
| 28 | High-end welding power supplies | Arc stability at 3,000m deep sea | ESAB (Norway), Lincoln Electric (US) |
| 31 | Ultra-precision polishing processes | Surface roughness 0.3nm vs. international 0.1nm | Zeiss (Germany), Corning (US), Olympus (Japan) |
| 33 | High-strength stainless steel | Sulfur content 0.003% vs. international 0.001% | ATI (US), ThyssenKrupp (Germany) |
| 34 | Database management systems | Throughput at 60% of Oracle’s | Oracle/IBM (US), Dameng (China, catching up) |
| 35 | Scanning electron microscopes | Domestic best 2nm vs. FEI’s 0.5nm | FEI (US), Hitachi/JEOL (Japan), Zeiss (Germany) |
III. Analysis of the Breakthroughs
- Policy focus: The 35 technologies were placed on the “open competition” list; special funds for integrated circuits, aero engines, and more have topped 500 billion RMB cumulatively
- Market pull: The world’s largest manufacturing base (30% of global output); annual sales of 30 million new energy vehicles drive supply chain iteration
- Corporate R&D: Huawei, SMIC, and others invest over 100 billion RMB a year in R&D; China’s R&D intensity reached 2.8% in 2024 (above the EU’s)
- Industry-academia collaboration: The Chinese Academy of Sciences and enterprises have jointly built 120 joint laboratories
IV. Outlook
| Phase | Timeline | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Short term | Within 3–5 years | Global market share of end mills, medical imaging components, and the like exceeds 70%; databases and fuel cells reach the “running alongside” stage |
| Medium term | Within 5–10 years | Domestic substitution rate of aero nacelles and high-end bearing steel exceeds 50%; EUV subsystems achieve autonomy |
| Long term | 10+ years | 80% of the technologies under independent and controllable development; shifting from “scale advantage” to “technology advantage” |
Compiled on July 2, 2026