Independent innovation is a continuous process of accumulation and we should pay full attention to the creation of “innovation chain”

1 Basic research must be paid attention to in the process of independent scientific and technological innovation. Independent innovation is proposed by China in the context of the transformation of Economic Growth Model and is a development strategy that the country should persist in for a long time. Liu Xielin believes that independent innovation is not a simple “individual decision”, but has a rich connotation including the practical ability to innovate, the process of innovation, innovative achievements, and others. We must have confidence and patience in independent innovation. The process of independent scientific and technological innovation is also difficult and full of hope. Since the late 1960s, Europe has tried its best, in the face of the obstruction of the United States, after 25 years of experience and 25 billion US dollar investment, and has finally produced its own Airbus. Independent technological innovation does not mean that technological development is completely predictable and can be planned.²⁹ Zou Chenglu believes that “Science takes understanding nature and exploring the unknown as its purpose. Although there are inherent laws of natural science, it has the nature of unpredictability”.³⁰ Specifically when, where, and what kind of development path are unpredictable and impossible to plan. Therefore, scientific development requires long-term accumulation. Technology is based on science and can set goals. Therefore, it is generally foreseeable. In particular, internationally implemented technologies can be planned and completed in a certain period of time. However, some original technologies are difficult to plan. Therefore, independent scientific and technological innovation must respect science and strengthen technological innovation and breakthroughs. As a developing country, independent scientific and technological innovation is more reflected in catching up with developed countries. In this sense, independent scientific and technological innovation means that the development of science and technology can be planned, but more is from the perspective of encouragement and support, which embodies the initiative of recognizing and developing independent scientific and technological innovation. Mr. Li Zheng- dao, Nobel laureate, said,

The development of science and technology can be planned and the development of basic science can be planned as well. The planning of basic sciences does not mean determining specific research topics, but rather clarifying the major research directions and making important guarantee measures.³¹

The most important part of the planning of basic sciences is the planning of personnel training. At the present stage, there are still many gaps between the overall level of basic research in China and the world’s advanced level, which leads to a lack of basic research capabilities for many reasons. However, the most fundamental reason is that some departments do not fully understand the importance of basic research, the long-term investment in basic research is insufficient and the intensity of per capita financial support is low. As international competition shifts from a competition for resources and markets to a competition for knowledge and talent, basic research is more important than ever before, and it is a source of technological innovation. Moreover, facts have proved that we cannot rely on other countries’ basic research to achieve the leapfrog development of technological and social productive forces. “For developing countries, if they want to compete with developed countries, they must follow the development direction of advanced science and technology on the basis of technological innovation so that independent innovation and development can be achieved”.³² The modern and contemporary technological civilizations in the developed countries all are the specific applications of basic scientific research results, such as the development of Internet technology benefits from the basic scientific research of high energy physics. The relationship between basic science and applied science is the same as that between “water” and “fish”. Only by attaching importance to basic scientific research can we always maintain the capability of independent innovation. Therefore, independent scientific and technological innovation must advance its deployment in the field of basic research and stably support and resolve the capability of using science and technology to solve the major issues of national development.³³ To this end, it is imperative to ensure the steady and sustained growth of basic research funding. Not only should the central government increase its financial investment in basic research, but also encourage local finance and enterprises to increase their investment in applied basic research.

2 The goal of independent scientific and technological innovation is to obtain independent intellectual property rights and the benefits those rights bring. “Innovative technologies, innovative markets and innovative property are the most important elements of a successful innovation”.³⁴

Enterprises in developed countries realize that the competition in technological innovation of enterprises is embodied in the market, the competition in the market is embodied in the products, the products competition is reflected in technology, and technological competition is reflected in the protection of innovative property rights. So the whole process of technological innovation shows the competition for acquiring innovative property rights.³⁵

And innovation benefits cannot be achieved without the awareness of property rights. There are many ways to obtain independent intellectual property rights, such as the introduction of technology-joint development-independent development, imitation development- joint development-self-development, commissioned development- joint development-self-development, and self-development model, featured as “we mainly build a platform for the world to integrate resources”. Brand, property rights, and innovation are key to judging the determination of independent innovation. Liu Xielin, a researcher at China Research Center for Science and Technology for Development, believes that, in the automobile industry, it is necessary to judge whether the vehicles of the joint venture belong to independent innovation. There are two standards. One is that in the joint venture—China should occupy more than 50% of the shares, that is, it should take control of the controlling interest. Second, the brand must be developed independently by China and can no longer be used as a foreign brand of the joint venture because the independent innovation brand should be an independent brand. A product, an industry, without its own brand means no market. No market dominance can only be in the subordinate position in the market. Therefore, independent scientific and technological innovation is to require the development of the industry to support the development of own brand, and the corresponding incentives and preferential policies should also be used as a reference. The industrialization of independent intellectual property rights means that Chinese citizens, legal persons, or unincorporated entities realize the commercialization, large-scale production, or large-scale application of the intellectual property products that they own (obtain or acquire by themselves) according to law. Compared with the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements, the industrialization of the results of independent intellectual property rights has the property right monopoly, property ownership autonomy, and significant driving force, and its core is the industrialization of patented technology.³⁶

At present, there are an increasing number of discussions on the independent innovation of theorists and practitioners in China, among which there are naturally many studies on the incentive policies and mechanisms of independent innovation, and occasionally some from the perspective of public finance. However, overall, at present, the study of China’s independent innovation of fiscal and taxation policies is still relatively weak, mainly represented by the following. First, independent innovation of the tax policy does not reflect the difference between science and technology innovation and tax policy. Second, from the perspective of policy instruments, the research of independent innovation is based respectively on investment in science and technology and taxation incentives rather than combining with fiscal expenditure and tax incentives. Third, more focus is given to promoting independent innovation of enterprises than the research from the perspective of a National Innovation System. Fourth, there is a lack of cooperation with other policies, such as financial policy, industrial policy, trade policy, and other aspects of the study; the research is limited to the incentive function. The research not only ignores the extensiveness and synergy of its incentive effect and macro-oriented role but also ignores the situation of limited national financial resources and state financial support for the stage.