China granted a key ministry new powers and created a bureau to oversee increasingly valuable data, shaking up oversight of its vast technology arena, as Xi Jinping’s administration battles the US in areas from artificial intelligence (AI) to semiconductors.

In a significant move, Beijing will establish a national bureau to manage and police data resources while building up China’s digital planning, according to a State Council reform plan submitted to the National People’s Congress (NPC). It also plans to expand the Ministry of Science and Technology’s role in orchestrating nationwide initiatives and formulating strategic policies, suggesting it can better direct critical efforts such as reducing a reliance on American technology.

From Xi on down, Chinese officials have increasingly voiced the need to harness the entire country’s resources to accelerate the development of critical technologies - a single-minded focus on fending off US sanctions and achieving self-sufficiency labeled the “whole nation system”. The idea is to create so-called chokepoint technologies, such as chipmaking machines and jet engines, to both ensure supply chain continuity and wield as bargaining chips against the West.

Beijing also elevated the rank of its patent regulator - which will now report directly to the State Council - with the goal of improving China’s ability to create and protect intellectual property. A semiconductor expert who now serves as an NPC delegate suggested recently that the country must amass a defensive portfolio of chip patents to counter US tech curbs.

The new data bureau could help Beijing tighten its grip over the valuable information gathered by swaths of the economy, including its internet industry. The government has sought to limit the power of its growing private sector by gaining control over the vast quantities of data generated across the country. Globally, governments are increasingly trying to gain better visibility into and control over the flow of information, particularly as new data-reliant technologies such as AI emerge.

“In the face of international tech competition and a severe situation of external containment pressures, we must further organise our technological leadership and management system to better coordinate our strength to overcome challenges on strategic core technologies,” the document read. That will help China “accelerate the achievement of high-level technological self-reliance”.