According to Long, compared with the world level, China's printing industry still faces some major problems like low per-capita consumption of printed material--which is only one tenth that of developed countries--an improper industrial structure, a weak basis for scientific research and development, a lack of stamina for technological innovation and of a standardized market order, and the low quality of equipment, labor and management.

Among these problems, the capacity for independent innovation is one of the hottest topics.

Wang Xuan, a famous Chinese scientist who died in February, is a notable person in the history of the printing industry in the country. He invented a computerized laser photocomposition system for Chinese character typesetting in the 1980s, ushering in a revolution in China's printing industry. If at that time China had decided to import the laser photocomposition technology from abroad instead of developing its own, it would have had to use up a lot of its foreign exchange reserves.

In every field, the government and experts have attached much importance to independent innovation. In June, a Xinhua News Agency report attracted a lot of attention as it said that China has mastered the next-generation printing technology with its own independent property rights.

"Our technological level is almost equal to that of foreign countries, while our cost is lower with bright application prospects," said Chen Ping, a researcher at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.