By JOHN RICHARD SCHROCK
UNESCO just released its Science Report on June 11, monitoring the advancements that have been made by countries around the world approximately every five years. This was the seventh edition, the prior report having been issued in 2015.
Subtitled “The race against time for smarter development,” the report focuses on investment in advanced technology, innovation and ecological changes. The report is written in sections, but the country standing out is China where it found “44% of growth in global research spending between 2014 and 2018 driven by China alone.”
There has been a diminishing return on research and development (R&D) spending. Countries are spending more on R&D but achieving fewer research papers and patents per dollar. “China is no exception, suggesting it may take time for Chinese investment in R&D to translate into productivity gains.”
Having brought a huge number of its population out of poverty, China is now in a “middle income trap.” It is pursuing a “Made in China” policy to “help ten strategic industries to reduce China’s reliance on foreign technologies” such as chip makers in Taiwan and South Korea.
China is several years ahead of the rest of the world in 5G technology (Huawei) and 5G-enabled voice-over for mobile phones (ZTE and Qualcomm). Chinese companies have also acquired Syngenta (a Swiss agrochemical giant) and Kuka, Germany’s largest developer of industrial robots.
Much of this report was compiled by Cong Cao, professor at University of Nottingham in Ningbo, who describes how China’s current research priorities in Artificial Intelligence, brain research, image recognition, space exploration and quantum computing are not likely to contribute as much to China’s overall industrial development. However, “China’s own strategic industries expect better government protection of their intellectual property, including through stricter enforcement. Consequently, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law was amended in April 2019 and the Patent Law in 2020 to offer better protection for trade secrets and patent-owners’ rights, respectively.” China overtook the United States as the world's top filer of international patents in 2019 and has since increased its lead.
The UNESCO report found that “China doubled gross domestic expenditure on research and development between 2012 and 2019 to more than 2.2 trillion RMB. This corresponds to 2.23% of GDP,” but falls short of their national target of 2.5% by 2020. This was less than the U.S. 3.1% in 2019 but surpasses the European percentage. China’s research publications are likewise greatest in number, having surpassed the U.S. in 2017, but continue to be more focused on applied problems such as greenhouse gas emission, agricultural production, hydropower, and freshwater sourcing.
China’s higher education continues to expand, with about half of graduates majoring in STEM, second only to Singapore. Over time, far more outbound Chinese students are returning to China after completing their masters or doctoral studies. “China’s booming economy is attracting a growing number of returnees who are staffing universities, research institutes and enterprises.”
More universities are being built, while higher education in the U.S. has seen a recent downturn in undergraduates. Leading Chinese universities are now moving up on the Times Higher Education 2020 World University Ranking, with Tsinghua and Peking Universities rising while some U.S. higher education institutions that previously dominated these rankings are now falling.
Among their most successful efforts is China’s work in Artificial Intelligence, where “papers published by Chinese scientists increased from 4.3% in 1997 to 27.7% of the global total in 2017, far outstripping other countries.”
The vast amount of research published worldwide is published in science journals where new discoveries and concepts are made available to all researchers to advance the field worldwide. The extent new science is incorporated into technology, manufacturing and healthcare then determines a country’s growth.
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The UNESCO report can be accessed at: https://www.unesco.org/reports/science/2021/en.
A shorter summary can be read at: https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210618082602135
John Richard Schrock has trained biology teachers for more than 30 years in Kansas. He also has lectured at 27 universities in 20 trips to China. He holds the distinction of “Faculty Emeritus” at Emporia State University.