In an article from the Proceedings of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with the catchy title Strengthening the construction of basic semiconductor capabilities and lighting the ‘beacon’ of semiconductor self-reliance and self-improvement, academicians Luo Junwei and Li Shushen claim that all China needs to do is research the right topics.

Building and designing with existing techniques will by necessity mean the use of protected intellectual property so they call for a Chinese semiconductor policy which promotes the spirit of scientists pursuing originality, and resist low-level repetitive follow-up research.

The pair also want physical infrastructure to support researchers, and for academic career paths to reward the long efforts required to produce published work on semiconductor innovations.

China has already funded plenty of semiconductor research and development and has found itself with a decent chip design industry but little capacity to produce advanced silicon. Attempts to start fabrication plants have sometimes blow up before factories were built.