Greater secrecy in science and tech makes China’s progress harder to decipher

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), China’s most important state body in the field, has become increasingly opaque. In January, MOST renamed many departments with titles that no longer reflect their function. The “Department of Basic Research,” for example, is now simply “Department I.” Technology is becoming as secretive as the military, making it harder for outsiders to assess China’s progress in what is a key area for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In 2023, Beijing started to re-order its science and technology policy architecture to resemble that of the 1960s, when China achieved nuclear power status after the Sino-Soviet split. Those breakthroughs arguably laid the groundwork for the US under President Nixon to recognize the People’s Republic of China as a great power.

US reactions to China’s tech ascendence have also supported the recent trend toward secrecy. Media and government portrayals of the first 5G telephone, manufactured by Huawei in China, as a security threat, is one reason the US has tightened trade restrictions in October 2023.

However, technological innovation requires the participation of people from many different areas. Sometimes information leaks. Huawei’s progress in AI chips in February 2025, for example, was mentioned in multiple social media posts. However, many of these posts had already been removed by March. 

Antonia Hmaidi, Senior Analyst at MERICS: “The renaming of departments shows the increasing secrecy in China’s science and technology policy making and in its tech breakthroughs – and also the importance of tech for the CCP.”