BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — On May 12, 2025, eight agencies led by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology in southwestern China issued an action plan for breakthroughs in brain-computer interface and human-machine interaction industries for 2025 to 2030. The plan targets 3,000 invasive BCI operations a year by 2030.
The document is numbered Chuan Jingxin Xin’an [2025] No. 82. Its co-issuers are the provincial development and reform commission and the departments of education, science and technology, culture and tourism, health, healthcare security and drug administration, and its key tasks are organized in four stages.
Sichuan is the only province to add a second industry to the title of its BCI document, describing BCI and human-machine interaction as advancing side by side. Voice, gesture, eye tracking, haptic feedback and extended reality interfaces already have an industrial base, and including them widens the statistical scope, which also explains the culture and tourism department’s role.
By 2027 Sichuan aims to develop and register three invasive and five non-invasive BCI products, serve more than 50,000 patient visits a year and speed up the province’s first invasive BCI operation.
By 2030 it aims to attract or cultivate ten chain-leading companies, 100 specialized small and medium-sized firms and 200 innovative smaller firms, reach 3,000 invasive operations a year, serve more than 100,000 patients a year with neurodegenerative, psychiatric, and drug or digital addiction disorders, and provide rehabilitation equipment to more than 20,000 people a year.
The 3,000 figure needs context. An invasive BCI product that the National Healthcare Security Administration described as the world’s first was approved for market only in March 2026. Performing 3,000 operations a year would require registered products from several suppliers, enough qualified hospitals, trained surgeons, standardized indications and patient selection, and insurance coverage.
The plan gives only 2027 and 2030 milestones, with nothing in between, so the figure functions mainly as a mobilizing signal to hospitals, companies and investors. The other targets are more modest. Registering three invasive and five non-invasive products in three years is attainable, and the 50,000 figure counts patient visits, including non-invasive rehabilitation, assessment and intervention.
One measure is a two-way open competition for research tasks, in which companies can post technology needs and research institutions can post results in search of markets. BCI technology comes mainly from universities and institutes, and labs often have a working electrode process without knowing who needs it, how to price it or which registration path to take; letting researchers post results addresses that side of the gap.
Both the provincial healthcare security administration and the drug administration co-signed the plan. In May 2025, two months after the national pricing guideline for BCI services was published, Sichuan brought payment and regulatory review agencies into drafting.
Sichuan’s clinical resources are concentrated in Chengdu, where the West China hospital system has deep experience in neurosurgery and rehabilitation, and the city has supporting capacity in integrated circuits and sensors. The plan names Chengdu, Mianyang, Deyang and Nanchong for attracting chain-leading companies and supports Chengdu in building a manufacturing innovation center. Companies remain the weak point, as the wording on attracting chain leaders suggests.
Pricing arrived at the end of 2025. Notice Chuan Yibao Banfa [2025] No. 29, published on December 31, 2025 and effective April 30, 2026, sets five tiers by hospital grade. Invasive implantation ranges from RMB 6,583 at top-grade tertiary hospitals to RMB 4,389 below the second-grade B level, removal from RMB 3,173 to RMB 2,115, and non-invasive fitting from RMB 965 to RMB 643. The children’s surcharge is 20%, compared with 30% in most provinces.
RMB 4,389 is the lowest provincial price BCIWiki has verified. All three items are classed as Category C, paid entirely by patients, while intracranial deep electrode implantation on the same price list is already Category B.
The most direct progress indicator is when and where the province’s first invasive operation takes place. Another is whether human-machine interaction draws resources away from BCI, since the industry with the shorter payback tends to win when two share one plan.