China has encouraged huge state-owned firms (SOEs) to help it achieve technology self-reliance, upping the stakes amid rifts with the US.

President Xi Jinping has frequently underlined the need for technological self-reliance to reduce foreign technology consumption as US export bans strike more Chinese enterprises and industries.

After meeting with the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the science and technology ministry stated China wants select state firms to become global IT leaders.

Wang Zhigang, the science and technology minister, said in a statement that state-owned businesses should be “pillars” in “achieving China’s high-level tech self-reliance and self-improvement.”

When it comes to technology, China wants its state-owned behemoths to be the country’s “pillars.”

“It is necessary to support central enterprises to meet the major needs of the country, focus on the “strangleholds” areas, resolutely win the battle of key core technologies, and effectively maintain national industrial security.”

He said on Wednesday that big state businesses should increase fundamental research spending, personnel recruitment, technical innovation, and university and research institution partnerships.

Analysts think China’s private enterprises are more inventive than state-dominated key industries that receive greater governmental subsidies.

In a battle to seize the “strategic initiative” despite U.S. disagreements, Chinese officials committed to develop a modern industrial system and make technical advances last week.

China’s “new whole-nation system” uses its political structure to pool national resources to promote tech initiatives and overcome the foreign “stranglehold” by drawing on its 1960s nuclear bomb development triumphs.