China to Pour More Money Into Chips, AI and 5G to Catch U.S. Bloomberg 3/5/2021 (Bloomberg) -- China pledged to boost spending and drive research into cutting-edge chips and artificial intelligence in its latest five-year targets, laying out a technological blueprint to vie for global influence with the U.S. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang singled out key areas in which to achieve “major breakthroughs in core technologies,” including high-end semiconductors, operating systems, computer processors and cloud computing -- areas in which American firms now hold sway. Beijing will also aim to get 56% of the country on faster fifth-generation or 5G networks. Nationwide R&D spending will increase by more than 7% annually, which “is expected to account for a higher percentage of GDP” than during the previous five years, he added.