Wednesday, April 20, 2011
[IWS] USCC: CHINA'S PROGRAM FOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY MODERNIZATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS [20 April 2011]
IWS Documented News Service
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Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
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U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC)
China’s Program for Science and Technology Modernization: Implications for American Competitiveness [20 April 2011]
[full-text, 143 pages]
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ........................................................................................................... 6
Introduction: the Trajectory of China’s Scientific and Technological Development ............................................................................................. 9
China’s National Institutions and National Programs for Science ........................ 15
China’s S&T Institutions .............................................................................................. 18
Major National Programs ............................................................................................. 24
Problems in Government-Sponsored Science ............................................................... 33
Other National Programs.............................................................................................. 35
The National Medium to Long-term Plan for the Development of Science and Technology (2005-2020) .......................................................................................... 38
Case Study I - Nanotechnology: Cutting-Edge Science and the Future of Innovation in China ................................................................................................. 46
Science, Technology, and Industrial Policy ................................................................ 54
Precedents in Techno-Industrial Policy ........................................................................ 60
Case Study II - Techno-Industrial Policy in the Semiconductor Sector .............. 62
Implementing China’s Industrial Ambitions ................................................................ 68
Doubts about Industrial Policies for Innovation .......................................................... 72
The International Dimension of Chinese Scientific and Technological Development ...................................................................................................................... 76
Indigenous Innovation .................................................................................................. 76
Commercial Linkages: Foreign Multinationals and Technology Transfer .................. 78
Case Study III - Nuclear Power: Innovation in State Enterprises and the Conundrum of Foreign Technology ............................................................................ 81
Beyond Technology Transfer: The Rise of Foreign R&D Centers ................................ 88
US Universities, Returnees and Technology Transfer ................................................. 95
US-China Scientific Cooperation ................................................................................ 101
Illicit Technology Acquisition ...................................................................................... 104
Science, Technology and China’s Military-Industrial Complex ............................ 109
Reforming the Military Technology Innovation Paradigm ........................................ 110
Funding Priority Technologies .................................................................................... 116
Finding Military Potential in the Civilian Sphere ..................................................... 118
Foreign Linkages ......................................................................................................... 123
Conclusion: China as a Rising Power in Science and Technology ....................... 127
China’s Program for Science and Technology Modernization
Prepared for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission
4
Appendix I: CAS Institutes ............................................................................................ 132
Appendix II: China’s National Laboratories ............................................................. 135
Appendix III: US-China Scientific Cooperation ....................................................... 137
Press Release 20 April 2011
China’s Program for Science and Technology Modernization: Implications for American Competitiveness
Washington, D.C. - The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has released a new report, “China’s Program for Science and Technology Modernization: Implications for American Competitiveness.” The report examines China’s national-level science and technology programs, assesses linkages between China‘s science policy and its industrial policy, discusses the methods commonly employed by the PRC to support its scientific modernization through interactions with the United States, and analyzes linkages between the Chinese government‘s science and technology efforts and the capacities of China‘s defense-industrial complex. The report also addresses the implications for US competitiveness and contains case studies on the semiconductor, nuclear energy, and nanotechnology sectors in China.
The Chinese government spends around 0.4 percent of the nation‘s gross domestic product on R&D in recent years, which is a significant amount, but still lower than the approximately 0.75 percent of GDP spent on R&D by the US federal government over the past decade. The report demonstrates that the Chinese government’s national science programs and industrial policies aimed at high tech industries are a significant contributor to the technological successes enjoyed by Chinese firms. Among the factors propelling China‘s emergence as a techno-industrial power is its low-cost manufacturing capabilities, a huge market that allows for scalability, an export promotion strategy, and the shrewd appropriation of the best technology from the international system.
China relies heavily on foreign technology for its innovation projects and inducing foreign companies to share technology is an important part of these efforts. In a section devoted to the International Dimension of Chinese Scientific and Technological Development, the report details how China has benefited from international cooperation such as linkages to foreign universities, which have trained hundreds of thousands of Chinese students in science and engineering since the 1980s; foreign governments, with whom China has a host of science and technology agreements; and foreign companies which have transferred vast amounts of technology to China and are increasingly developing technology in China through the establishment of R&D centers. To harness foreign intellectual property and talent, Chinese authorities promote multinational corporations to build R&D centers in China, encourage mergers and acquisitions of foreign firms, and enable the theft of foreign technology.
In discussing the role of China’s military-industrial complex in China’s science and technology policy, the report notes that China‘s defense innovation system has achieved startling progress over the last decade, producing high-tech systems and weapons faster than many foreign observers anticipated. It discusses how the line between government and private initiatives is blurred in China and how the PLA‘s defense innovation system benefits from links between Chinese and Western firms. China has been developing several high-tech solutions intended to disrupt and undermine the traditional advantages of the United States in warfare. China‘s anti-satellite missiles, its DongFeng-21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM), and associated advanced sensors, seem intended to deny the American military access to the Western Pacific. New aerial drones are in development, and a newly-revealed prototype of a 5th generation fighter, the J-20, seeks to undo the US‘s near-monopoly on low-observable aircraft. Dual use technologies desired by China include electronics and semiconductor components, telecommunications products, high-grade numerically-controlled machine tools, aircraft, and spaceflight systems.
The report concludes that: “In trying to find the balance between market forces and state directed innovation, and between domestic technological development and employment of foreign technology, China has not always gotten it right. Nevertheless, there is a clear sense of vision about the importance of science and technology for China‘s future, a clear commitment by the political elite to that vision, and a willingness to make resources available for the facilities and people needed to realize it. It is this vision and commitment that capture the imagination of the foreign observer as China enters the second decade of the 21st century. The China that emerges from the pursuit of the vision, in spite of the manifest obstacles to its realization, will be a formidable presence in the realms of economy and security.”
This report was prepared for the Commission by Micah Springut, Stephen Schlaikjer, and David Chen of CENTRA Technology, Inc.
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Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
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