China's State Council issued the Education Development 15th Five-Year Plan,
launching a new round of 'Double First Class' construction and requiring
standards to be determined autonomously and scientifically under a
national-mission, strategy-driven, forward-looking systematic approach. The plan
calls for a moderate expansion of the program targeted at advantaged disciplines
and strategic needs, emphasizing disciplinary crossovers, industry-education and
science-education integration, digital-intelligence enablement, reinforcement of
basic disciplines, coordination between applied and basic fields, accelerated
development of emerging interdisciplinary areas, and positioning participation
institutions as primary hubs for elite innovation talent, the main force in
basic research and sources of major technological breakthroughs.