BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — On January 10, 2025, the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission issued an action plan to cultivate the brain-computer interface industry for 2025 to 2030, three days after Beijing. Its 2030 goals include a specific pledge to help blind patients partially regain vision.
The document is numbered Hu Ke [2025] No. 5 and is organized around five groups of key tasks.
Shanghai’s plan was issued by the science commission alone. Beijing’s had three co-issuers, Sichuan’s eight, Jiangsu’s nine and Shandong’s second document 16. The lightest issuing format produced the most clinically specific plan among the provinces.
The overall goals use two terms. By 2027 Shanghai aims for high-quality brain control, reading signals from the brain to operate external devices such as robotic arms, cursors and wheelchairs. By 2030 it aims for high-quality brain modulation, writing signals back into the brain through external stimulation, a category that includes visual prostheses, deep brain stimulation and sensory feedback.
Electrodes outside the scalp struggle to stimulate specific neurons, so non-invasive technology can do little on the writing side. By committing to brain modulation, Shanghai effectively chose invasive and semi-invasive approaches. Restoring vision is one concrete application, encoding camera images into electrical stimulation delivered to the retina, optic nerve or visual cortex.
Three 2027 targets stand out: semi-invasive BCI products reaching clinical use in China ahead of other regions, more than five invasive or semi-invasive products completing medical device type testing, and more than five core technology companies and ten supply-chain companies attracted or cultivated. By 2030 the plan calls for full clinical application of products, a largely domestic upstream supply chain and a national-level industry cluster.
Type testing is a required step before device registration, in which an accredited laboratory runs a full set of tests and issues a report. Registering five invasive products within three years would be unrealistic, while completing type testing is attainable, which suggests the drafters understood the actual pace of device approval.
Shanghai’s strength lies in its clinical pathway. It has a high density of top-tier hospitals, a mature ethics review system, one of China’s largest numbers of registered device clinical trial sites, and the Shanghai Institute of Medical Device Testing, which shortens the path from type testing to registration. Its weakness is upstream, where local coverage of electrode materials, dedicated chips and packaging is limited, which is why the 2030 goals include domestic sourcing.
The support measures include two mechanisms: a discovery, screening and cultivation mechanism under which the government seeks out early-stage teams not yet able to apply for funding, and a project manager system that assigns dedicated staff to coordinate key projects across agencies. The plan also backs including BCI products in medical insurance fee catalogs.
That pledge was only partly carried through by the healthcare security bureau. On August 26, 2025, the Shanghai Municipal Healthcare Security Administration issued notice Hu Yibao Jiacai Fa [2025] No. 26, piloting three fee items for invasive implantation, invasive removal and non-invasive fitting. The price column says hospitals set prices themselves, with no government guidance price, and Article 4 states the items are not yet covered by the city’s basic medical insurance.
Creating fee items without setting prices or reimbursement is unique to Shanghai among the provinces. Zhejiang had already covered the non-invasive fitting fee under Category B, and Beijing brought all three items under Category A three months later. With a large insurance pool and many enrollees, Shanghai is more cautious in fund projections for new technologies, and the notice requires hospitals to inform patients and obtain consent before charging.
Two questions remain. Visual prostheses have no mature commercial product anywhere, so the weight of the vision goal depends on whether local teams pursue it and how far they get in five years. When Shanghai opens reimbursement will say more about its industry progress than further action plans.