China’s education authorities announced on Wednesday it would launch 12 new institutions in the country’s first-tier universities, in a move to cultivate local technology talent.

The universities include Peking University, Tsinghua University and Beihang University, according to a press release by the Ministry of Education.

The schools must focus on developing “cutting-edge, revolutionary and disruptive technologies for the next 10 to 15 years, and cultivating forward-looking technological innovation leaders who can lead the country’s future development,” the note said.

The move echoed Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent appeals to “rely on our own efforts to command the great power in our own hands.” Tsinghua University recently set up the School of Integrated Circuits to establish a high-level teaching and research team in the field.

Although China’s integrated circuit industry has continued to rapidly grow, the overall technological level still lags behind other countries. It remains overly dependent on foreign chips in a wide range of fields, including smartphones and cars.

The Chinese government has adopted “technology self-reliance” as a national development strategy since last year, requiring independent innovation in key core technologies such as chips.

Since the China-U.S. trade conflict, Beijing has been excluded from the supply chain of chips initiated by Washington. The U.S. placed pressure on Dutch company ASML earlier this year, preventing it from selling its extreme ultraviolet lithography technology to China.

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