863 Program

History of the People's Republic of China
1949–1976: Mao era Revolution Land Reform Movement Proclamation Korean War Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries Three-anti and Five-anti Campaigns First five-year plan Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Bandung Conference Sufan movement Hundred Flowers Campaign Anti-Rightist Campaign Canton Fair Great Leap Forward Great Chinese Famine Anti-Right Deviation Struggle Two Bombs, One Satellite Seven Thousand Cadres Conference Socialist Education Movement Third Front Cultural Revolution Abolition of the presidency UN representation Richard Nixon visit
1976–1989: Hua & Deng era Gang of Four Boluan Fanzheng 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy New Enlightenment Reform and opening up Special economic zones China–United States relations Three Communiqués Four Modernizations Sino-Vietnamese War Beijing Spring Strike Hard Against Crime Campaign Sino-British Joint Declaration Campaign against spiritual pollution Bourgeois liberalization Opposition 863 Program 1986 Chinese student demonstrations Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
1989–2002: Jiang era Shanghai Stock Exchange Pudong New District Deng's southern tour 1992 consensus One country, two systems Handover of Hong Kong Handover of Macau 1998 floods US bombing of the Belgrade embassy Persecution of Falun Gong China Western Development Hainan Island incident APEC China 2001 Accession to the WTO Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
2002–2012: Hu era 2002–2004 SARS outbreak Shenzhou 5 Visit of Lien Chan South–North Water Transfer Project Qinghai–Tibet railway 2008 Sichuan earthquake Three Links with Taiwan 2008 Summer Olympics Expo 2010 BRICS Three Gorges Dam West–East Gas Pipeline High-speed rail
2012–present: Xi era Anti-corruption campaign Chang'e 3 Supercomputing Meeting with Ma Ying-Jeou Xiong'an Persecution of Uyghurs Xinjiang internment camps China–United States trade war Tiangong space station 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests 2020 Hong Kong national security law COVID-19 pandemic Zero-COVID 2020–2021 reform spree 2022 Winter Olympics 2022 COVID-19 protests in China Artificial Intelligence Cold War Belt and Road Initiative APEC China 2014 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit 9th BRICS summit China International Import Expo
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The 863 program (Chinese: 863计划) or State High-Tech Development Plan (Chinese: 国家高技术研究发展计划) was a program funded and administered by the government of the People's Republic of China intended to stimulate the development of advanced technologies in a wide range of fields for the purpose of rendering China independent of financial obligations for foreign technologies.^[1] It was inspired by the Strategic Defense Initiative proposed by U.S. president Ronald Reagan in 1983, and was absorbed alongside Program 973 into the "National Key R&D Program" in 2016.^[2][3][4]

On March 3, 1986, the program was suggested by Wang Daheng, Wang Ganchang, Yang Jiachi, and Chen Fangyun in a letter to China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, who approved the program within 2 days.^[5][6] The program was initially led by Zhao Ziyang, who was the premier of China at the time, and received a governmental fund of 10 billion RMB in 1986, which accounts for 5% of the total government spending that year.^[3][6][7] According to the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the 863 program "provides funding and guidance for efforts to clandestinely acquire US technology and sensitive economic information."^[8]

Among the products known to have resulted from the 863 program are the Loongson computer processor family (originally named Godson), the Tianhe supercomputers and the Shenzhou spacecraft.^[9][10]

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Named after its date of establishment (March 1986, 86/3 by the Chinese date format), the 863 Program was proposed in a letter to the Chinese government by scientists Wang Daheng, Wang Ganchang, Yang Jiachi, and Chen Fangyun and endorsed by Deng Xiaoping.^[11] After its implementation during the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the program continued to operate through the two five-year plans that followed, with state financing of around 11 billion RMB and an output of around 2000 patents (national and international).^[12]

In 2001, under the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the program was reevaluated in consultation with foreign experts. The result was a widened focus to strengthen the competitiveness of China in the global economy.^[13] The evaluation practice has been included into the program as a project management system.^[13]

In a 2011 court case, Chinese-born scientist Huang Kexue was found guilty of stealing commercial secrets from US-based corporations and passing at least some of this information to the 863 program.^[14]

The program initially focused on seven key technological fields:^[15]

• Biotechnology
• Space
• Information technology
• Laser technology
• Automation
• Energy
• New materials

Since 1986, two more fields have been brought under the umbrella of the program:

• Telecommunications (1992)
• Marine technology (1996)

• Science and technology in China
• Allegations of intellectual property infringement by China
• Program 973
• State Key Laboratories
• Project 985
• Project 211