Wuhan: Chinese President Xi Jinping has likened a microchip to the human heart, saying "no matter how big a person is, he or she can never be strong without a sound and strong heart".
Urging Chinese businesses to make major breakthroughs in chip technology, Xi, who hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in the central Chinese city for an unprecedented two-day informal summit, said they should achieve new heights in global semiconductor industry.
On Thursday, ahead of his one-on-one meetings with Modi, Xi, also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, inspected two leading chipmakers in a high-tech development zone in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province.
The area, dubbed "China's Optics Valley," is the world's largest R&D and manufacturing base for optical communication equipment.
Xi first visited FiberHome Technologies Group, which leads the world in R&D and production of optical communication equipment of "ultra-large capacity, ultra-long haul and ultra-high rate," with technology that can enable 6.75 billion telephone calls at the same time using a single optical fiber, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Referring to chips as like the human heart, Xi said, "No matter how big a person is, he or she can never be strong without a sound and strong heart," he said.
Xi said that innovation is the priority in China's new development concept.
Having become the world's second largest economy, China must rely on innovation to spur economic growth as the old resources-dependent way is no longer effective, he said.
Independent core technology determines the survival of businesses, he said.
"Businesses must unceasingly make breakthroughs in core technology, mastering more key technologies with self-owned intellectual property rights and building up the ability to dominate industrial development. The country needs you to pick up the pace," Xi said.