China catching up in key electronic parts

The technological gap between China and traditional electronic powerhouses, including the United States, has narrowed from 15 years to just five in the past decade, according to a top Chinese official.

Over that period, the ratio of Chinese-made defense and high-tech equipment that include domestically developed key electronic parts has risen from 30 percent to 85 percent, said Diao Shijing, director of information technology at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

This means "China is now fully capable of producing secured and reliable advanced electronic components, and it will rely even less on imports", he said.

Diao said the nation's progress in key electronic parts, computer chips, and software is a "remarkable achievement considering how fast other countries are also developing".

These fields not only are crucial to big industries, but also affect our daily lives, from laptops to smartphones, he added.

"Chinese key electronic components and computer chips went from nearly unusable 10 years ago to being key parts of China's major defense and science projects, from the space programs to the deep-sea submersible," Diao said.