The material industry is the material foundation for national economic construction and social progress. As China has entered the middle to late stages of industrialization, the role of materials has become particularly important. Conducting research on a strong new materials strategy is of significant strategic importance in supporting the implementation of China's manufacturing power strategy. This article systematically analyzes the current situation, trends, and existing problems of the new materials industry at home and abroad, sorts out the policies related to the new materials industry, and proposes an overall development concept, characteristics, and goals of a strong new materials strategy based on future development needs. Focusing on key areas such as advanced basic materials, critical strategic materials, cutting-edge new materials, and the construction of "evaluation, characterization, standards" platforms for new materials, it studies and clarifies the key directions of development. It also puts forward policy recommendations from aspects such as building an independent innovation system for new materials, constructing digital R&D platforms, production and application demonstration platforms, resource sharing platforms, improving the quality and technical infrastructure system for new materials, and cultivating a talent team suitable for the development of the new materials industry, with the aim of providing decision-making references for the development of China's new materials industry and relevant government departments.

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Materials serve various fields including the national economy, social development, and people's daily lives, forming the material foundation and forerunner of economic construction, social progress, and national security. New-generation information technology and new materials are the two "core technologies" of manufacturing. New-generation information technology is the driving force behind the Fourth Industrial Revolution, while new materials are indispensable for supporting strategic emerging industries and major projects. The deep integration of information technology and new materials jointly promotes the high-end development of manufacturing.

In recent years, under the backdrop of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution, new material technologies have continuously achieved new breakthroughs, with new materials and new material structures constantly emerging, and the global new materials industry has maintained a rapid growth trend. Compared to developed countries, China's new materials industry started later and has a weaker foundation. Since the 12th Five-Year Plan, China has introduced multiple policy documents, making comprehensive deployments in the material sector, striving to catch up with developed countries. Through unremitting efforts, China has made significant progress in system building, industrial scale, technological advancement, and cluster effects, making important contributions to the national economy and becoming a true material powerhouse. However, at the same time, there are still many issues in the development of China's new materials industry, and the path to becoming a strong material nation remains long and arduous.

To promote the high-quality development of the new materials industry and support the implementation of the strategy to become a manufacturing powerhouse, in December 2017, the Chinese Academy of Engineering officially launched a major consulting project titled "Strategic Research on Building a Strong New Materials Nation by 2035," aiming to provide top-level design for the development of China's new materials industry. The project organized research groups focusing on advanced basic materials, key strategic materials, cutting-edge new materials, as well as the evaluation, characterization, and standard platform construction of new materials, concentrating on key areas to formulate a new materials powerhouse development strategy toward 2035, providing advisory suggestions for the country to accelerate the improvement of independent innovation capabilities and core competitiveness of the new materials industry.

This article, as an academic achievement display of the "Strategic Research on Building a Strong New Materials Nation by 2035" project, analyzes the current status, trends, and existing problems in the development of the new materials industry, combs through new materials industry policies, and studies the overall thinking, characteristics, and development goals of the new materials powerhouse strategy based on the strategic needs of new materials. It proposes key development directions for key areas of the new materials industry, and puts forward relevant policy measures to provide support and reference for the development of China's new materials industry and decision-making by relevant government departments.

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(1) Current Situation and Trends in the Development of New Materials Industry Abroad 

1. Current Situation and Trend of Industrial Development

The global new materials industry is developing rapidly, with the industrial scale continuously expanding. According to statistics, the global output value of new materials reached 2.82 trillion US dollars in 2019. The global new materials industry has formed a three-tier competitive landscape, with each country's industrial development having its own strengths. The first tier consists of developed countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, which hold absolute advantages in economic strength, core technologies, R&D capabilities, and market share. The second tier includes countries like South Korea, Russia, and China, where the new materials industry is in a period of rapid development. The third tier comprises countries such as Brazil and India. From a global perspective, the monopolization of the new materials industry is intensifying, and the technological barriers for high-end materials are becoming increasingly evident. Large multinational companies, leveraging their advantages in technology research and development, capital, and talent, have taken the lead in most high-tech, high-value-added new material products by using technology and patents as barriers.

Currently, the rapid development of emerging industries represented by next-generation information technology, new energy, and intelligent manufacturing has placed higher demands on materials, such as ultra-high purity, ultra-high performance, ultra-low defects, high-speed iteration, multi-functionality, high durability, low cost, easy recycling, and sophisticated equipment, making the development of new materials more challenging than ever before. The new materials industry is moving towards greener, lower-carbon, more refined, and more resource-efficient directions. The pace of innovation in new materials research and preparation methods is accelerating. The emergence of new material design methods, such as material genome engineering, has significantly reduced the research and development cycle and costs of new materials, speeding up the innovation process. The rapid development of new generation information technologies and Internet technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud computing, along with the application of new sensing and automation technologies, is driving the continuous acceleration of the research and development process in the new materials industry.

2. New Materials Industry Policies

In recent years, major developed countries abroad have introduced relevant special policies targeting key areas of new materials, implementing long-term and precise support and early strategic layouts for key new material fields, promoting the rapid development of their domestic new materials industries, allowing them to take leading positions in the international new materials industry. For example, in the field of third-generation semiconductors, the United States, Europe, the UK, Japan, South Korea, and other countries and regions have introduced more than 60 policies in recent years, with a total investment of $3.7 billion, mainly developing SiC substrates, GaN RF devices, GaN LEDs, SiC and Si-based GaN power devices, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), power electronic devices, and other chip packaging materials in the fields of power electronics, optoelectronics, microwave radio frequency, and semiconductor lighting.

For key material fields, foreign countries are actively implementing trade policies to protect their own interests. As of August 2020, the United States had imposed additional tariffs on about $550 billion worth of Chinese goods exported to the US, with the tariff list widely involving products such as communications, electronics, machinery equipment, automobiles, and furniture. These industries indirectly or directly affect upstream new materials enterprises, especially those with low added value, whose profits will be significantly impacted.

Developed countries are continuously setting up barriers to the export of key technologies and products. In August 2018, the U.S. President signed the Export Control Reform Act, and in November of the same year, the Bureau of Industry and Security under the U.S. Department of Commerce proposed a framework for the control of exports of critical technologies and related products, listing 14 areas under consideration for regulation, including advanced materials technology and equipment, testing instruments, etc., related to the preparation of new materials.

1. Current Status of the Industry

The production system of the new materials industry is basically complete, with the industrial scale continuously expanding. China's new materials industry has formed the world's most comprehensive and largest material industry system. It has established a research and development and production system covering structural and functional materials such as metals, polymers, and ceramics; it has also developed a massive scale of material production, with over a hundred types of materials including steel, non-ferrous metals, rare earth metals, cement, glass, chemical fibers, advanced energy storage materials, photovoltaic materials, silicones, superhard materials, and special stainless steels ranking first in global output. According to statistics, since the 12th Five-Year Plan, the output value of China's new materials industry has rapidly expanded, growing from 0.65 trillion yuan in 2010 to 4.57 trillion yuan in 2019. Gradually, an innovation system for new materials, which is enterprise-led, market-oriented, and integrates "application, production, academia, and research," has been established. Leveraging regional resource advantages, new ma