Founder and CEO of QiangNao Technology, Han Bicheng, responds to 36Kr: Brain-computer interfaces will definitely solve the brain disease problems that trouble people within a few years. The current main bottleneck is the payment system.

By Daily Economic News reporter | Zhang Rui |
Editor-in-chief of Daily Economic News | Wei Wenyi

On March 22, the two-day China Development Forum 2026 Annual Meeting opened at Beijing Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

The China Development Forum is the first major national-level international forum held after the National Two Sessions every year. Since its launch in 2000, it has become an important bridge for promoting dialogue and cooperation between China and the rest of the world.

This year’s theme is “China of the ‘15th Five-Year Plan Period’: High-Quality Development and Creating New Opportunities for Co-development.” The forum will cover topics including macro policy and high-quality development; opportunities and challenges brought by changes in population and economic growth; the development of the new energy industry and international cooperation; technological innovation and the development of future industries; and the industrialization and application of artificial intelligence, among others. It will hold 13 special thematic seminars and several closed-door seminars.

This year, “brain-computer interfaces” were written into the Government Work Report for the first time. During this forum, Han Bizheng, founder and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Strong Brain Technology—one of the “Hangzhou Six Little Dragons”—was interviewed on site by reporters from The Daily Economic News (hereinafter referred to as NBD).

In the interview, Han Bizheng candidly said that, “Being the first time the Government Work Report has included brain-computer interfaces, I feel especially invigorated,” adding that, “This year we received a large number of requests for joint development of brain-computer interface products, more than 5 times the number we received last year.”

Han Bizheng said that, in the future, we may be able to send out sounds just by imagining, and we may be able to type using our intention. So many people also list brain-computer interfaces as next-generation interaction technology. The direction and room for cooperation will be very large, including many phone manufacturers and many interaction interfaces. Brain-computer interfaces are very likely to be the next-generation keyboard and the next-generation touch screen.

Han Bizheng, founder and CEO of Strong Brain Technology |
Photo source: Provided by the interviewee

Not limited to building only non-invasive brain-computer interfaces

NBD: Are you a firm supporter of the non-invasive brain-computer interface technology roadmap?**

Han Bizheng: Actually, not really. We are a company focusing on solving problems related to the brain. For example, we are also paying close attention to people with blindness. In China, there may be over 10 million people who are blind. And blindness needs to be solved using invasive methods, because the amount of information input is very large, and non-invasive brain-computer interfaces are difficult to solve. So we won’t limit ourselves to only building non-invasive brain-computer interfaces; instead, we want to solve the diseases and conditions that create difficulties for human beings.

For example, Alzheimer’s disease—we are also working hard on research. Currently, about 40% of people aged over 80 have Alzheimer’s disease to varying degrees. Once it has formed, it is difficult to treat and difficult to reverse. But brain-computer interface technology—especially non-invasive brain-computer interface technology—can, in the early stage, through intervention, help them recover better, or delay entering an Alzheimer’s disease state by 3 to 5 years. So we won’t confine ourselves to just one technical route. The core is whether, through compatible technologies, we can solve various kinds of brain-related diseases and problems.

NBD: Just not long ago, the National Medical Products Administration officially approved the registration application for an innovative product—the hand movement function compensation system—for an implanted brain-computer interface, from Boree Kang Medical Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. This is also the world’s first implanted brain-computer interface medical device. What do you think about this?

Han Bizheng: Seeing the comprehensive development of brain-computer interfaces makes me especially happy. For more than ten years, we can almost say we have been doing experiments in the lab every day, always wanting to solve this problem. Now that we see many companies emerging and many places and universities carrying out research related to brain-computer interfaces, we are very happy.

In the past decade, we indeed need to thank Elon Musk and Sam Altman. As very influential figures in the business world, when they announced that they are working on brain-computer interfaces, it also brought about a surge in the entire industry. But most importantly, in China’s “15th Five-Year Plan” outline, brain-computer interfaces were listed as one of the six future industries. Now all universities in China are paying attention to brain-computer interfaces. I believe brain-computer interfaces will, within the next few years, solve the brain-disease problems that trouble people. For example, many people today have sleep problems. In the future, using brain-computer interface products, everyone may be able to fall asleep within 5 minutes and everyone can get a good night’s rest.

The main bottleneck restricting applications is the payment system

NBD: In multiple occasions, you have said that you hope to help one million disabled people “grow” their arms and legs again in the next 5 to 10 years. To achieve this goal, what is the biggest bottleneck? Is it** technology, cost,** or** other factors**?**

Han Bizheng: First of all, brain-computer interface is a very serious and very difficult technology. We have been working on it for 11 years, and only now have we just started to transform this technology into some usable products.

For example, to develop this “hand” for disabled people, we have already spent nearly ten years. Last year, we helped more than 6,000 disabled people who had no arms or legs to install prosthetics. Before having arms and legs, the vast majority of such people stayed at home most of the time. But after installing prosthetics, the hand can move every single finger. Especially after installing a thigh prosthesis, once you put on pants, you can’t tell that the user doesn’t have a thigh. Even when walking among a crowd, you also can’t tell. After these people install prosthetics, there are significant changes: they immediately start looking for new jobs. These products are already beginning to improve the lives of disabled people.

I believe the main bottleneck at present is the payment system. On the one hand, we really need to gradually bring down the product cost, because there is currently no very mature off-the-shelf supply chain—we need to develop it step by step. On the other hand, we hope to encourage more insurance companies to include these products in their coverage for reimbursement, and this is crucial.

NBD: What do you think is the most difficult part of this leap from “medical-grade” to “consumer-grade”?

Han Bizheng: Actually, I don’t think there is any difference in difficulty between medical-grade and consumer-grade products. In fact, I think consumer-grade brain-computer interface products are even harder, because the user group they apply to is broader. When you are serving a much larger group of people, the requirements for the product are higher.

For example, the sleep product we are trying to work on is to let everyone who can’t fall asleep fall asleep within 5 minutes—which is very hard to achieve. But once it is achieved, the number of people may not be just a few thousand or a few tens of thousands; it could be from several million to tens of millions. It is extremely difficult to make a product like that. As for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) products, they are still in a very early stage. But we are willing to spend many years gradually polishing the product. We are very firm in our hope to make a product that can be used by the general public, not just by a small number of people. This is also the reason we have been pushing for mass production of brain-computer interfaces since day one.

So, we are working on a very difficult technology to make a very difficult product. Taking signal parsing as an example, the signal of a brain-computer interface is extremely weak—only ±50 microvolts. Moreover, everyone’s neural signals are different. Especially for people with limb disabilities, each person’s level of amputation is also different, and there are many different everyday scenarios they face. How to enable every disabled person to complete daily life tasks with prosthetics controlled by their thoughts is extremely difficult. But I think it is possible to make such a good product.

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Cover image source: Provided by the interviewee