Abstract: As the core and leader of China’s innovation system, national laboratories are the overall lever for organizing national strategic scientific and technological forces to carry out major scientific research tasks. Compared to the national laboratories of the US Department of Energy, China's national laboratories have their own distinct characteristics in terms of construction goals, system positioning, and management system. The construction of national laboratories will become an important basis for China to explore and improve the new “whole-nation” system, promote the deep reconstruction of China's innovation system, and significantly enhance the organizational level and systematic ability of the national innovation system. To accelerate the construction of national laboratories, we must adhere to the unity of rights, responsibilities, and interests, gather various forces from the central, local, national scientific research institutions, high-level research-oriented universities, and technology leading enterprises, thus effectively leveraging the institutional advantages of social concentration to accomplish major tasks.