China and the Technological Challenge to the US - Case Study Example

China and the technological challenge to the US It is no doubt that China has exponentially advanced in the field of technology. Perhaps the best indicator of this growth is not even the figures that the country has hit, but the ambitious plans it has in store. This plan is clearly envisioned in the government’s Strategic Emerging Industries initiative whose goal is to overtake Japan and western countries in key sectors. These sectors include biotechnology, clean energy, information technology, manufacturing and new materials. The five-year program, fully funded by the state, will take up between $1,500bn and $2,000bni1. The plan further envisions an increase in spending on research and development from the current 2% of China’s GDP to a staggering 2.5%. The growth of China may be interpreted, in the US, in two ways. One way is to look at it as a threat to America’s growth and global influence while the other way is to view it as harmless. Either way, China’s determination to base its industrial development on a broad array of science and technology disciplines continues to shock many; a horde of the world’s pacesetters included. China’s record of achievement is nothing but impressive, at least at the face value. It has recently overtaken the US as the number one country in installation of DNA sequencing capacity. More so, the Republic of China has invented a supercomputer which is the world’s most powerful computer2. In the education and research sector, China is at the fore front too. Annually, it graduates more engineering students than any country in the world. Further afield, it is projected that will soon, and very soon, overthrow the US as the biggest source of scientific publications. Experts put this projection to be somewhere around the year 2020. The most striking thing about China’s advancement is not the intensity or magnitude, but the time that it took them to achieve the goals. For instance, China only enacted its first patent law in 1985, many years after the US did. Breathtaking as the developments may be, China’s dominance in the field of technology raises both supporters and critics in equal measure. Some critics condemn and vilify the government’s resolve to over subsidize the sector. This practice is termed a violation of conventional trade laws, thus undermining international trade3. Further adrift, there are others who posit that other countries should embrace China’s model instead of crying foul. They believe that the west, in particular, should aim at empowering their local industries and set strategic goals that harness the power of the state. To them, the issue of government funding should not be contentious because every country has the option at its disposal. One of the major pointers of a country’s technological growth is the number of patent applications that it has under its tag. China is now the largest recipient of patent applications worldwide, way above Japan and the US. At a quick glance, this may mean that China is on course to overtake the US. The validity of this assumption is not abstract but may be true. However, it will take time before fruits are borne and harvested. In fact, America has no reason of feeling threatened by China’s surge on the patent field. The mere fact that China first had a patent law thirty years ago should be consoling enough. This fact, therefore, reveals that the surge in patent applications is driven by the government’s targets rather than innovations. China’s official goal is to hit two million patent applications by the year 2015. The approach of quantity over quality best describes the one evidenced in China. In fact, less than 30 % of the patent applications in china are classified as innovative patents with the others being of lower quality designs4. Another pointer is in the difference between the royalties paid by China to non Chinese patent holders and those it receives for patents it has issued. In 2011, for example, the deficit for China was a staggering $17 billion while the US had a surplus of $82bn. Though China is on a technological advancement path, much of what it domesticates is sourced from other countries. Prior to 2011, China had imposed a requirement on all foreign companies to share out their technology under the disguise of indigenous innovation. Though this policy was aborted later, officials of the national government still effected it, albeit covertly. That notwithstanding, damage could have been done already, with the casualty being none other than China herself. Analysts have blamed the death of 40 people in the Wenzhou high-speed train crash of 2011 on such mistakes. The signaling system used had been copied from a Japanese company and had failed because the vital inner working system of the system had not been deciphered correctly. These illustrations of foul play evidently show that despite the chest thumping, China still lags behind in the frontiers of science. China has put up efforts to enhance its scientific and technological might in successive years. This upgrade is out of the realization, perhaps, that its own research efforts are critical in channeling it to be a technological giant. In 2012, China’s spending on research and development stood at an overall second position behind the US5. While research spending can point at increased efforts and input in furtherance of innovation measures, it can never be used as a threshold of the output thereof. It is no doubt that China has some of the world’s most endowed and brilliant scientists, but that means nothing when it comes to performance. This is because of the mere fact that the numbers and capabilities of a country can easily be overstated to serve a specific purpose. Though China’s might is irrefutable, the US can still relax and worry less. Another strong argument for China’s claim to be the number one technology giant is in the number of graduates that its universities turn out annually6. It is estimated that approximately 2 million engineering grandaunts leave the universities annually. This figure is by far unmatched by any other country in the world. However, the same issue of quality over quantity applies even in education, particularly in postgraduate studies that China boasts of. Studies have, for a long time, shown that an engineering degree from China is of a lesser standard than one acquired in America. The truth of these studies is debatable and may only serve to protect the interests of the US for example. However, other studies have shown that multinational companies would naturally prefer a US trained engineer to a China trained one7. Of course these pronouncements are subject to debate. Regardless, statistics work in favor of the US. China boasts of having high profile scientists that have won international accolades such as the Nobel Prize. Despite this honor, it remains a fact that these scientists have succeeded not in their own country but in foreign lands. Over the recent past, China has been on a charm offensive in a bid to lure the scientists back to their native land. This development is obviously a sign of China’s emerging technological powerhouse. A disappointing fact is that none of the Chinese scientists have won these prizes for studies conducted within mainland China8. It is projected that China is on track to becoming the world’s number one source of scientific publications in the year 2020. This will be a big milestone in stamping the country’s authority in matters of science and research. However, publications from China have attracted worldwide condemnation due to the low quality of the researches. One of the reasons for this criticism lies in the fact that they have relatively fewer citations as opposed to publications from other countries poised in the same league of giants. A recent study discovered a syndicate of black market scientific publication involving lecturers, scientists and compromised editors9. China’s hopes of vindicating itself as a genuine technological powerhouse depend on its ability to tackle the malpractices that hinder its scientific and research sector. This initiative is something that China has already started in a bid to answer questions criticizing its resolve to excel in the field. Nevertheless, this action cannot be enough to project it to the top of the world10. It will need more breakthroughs and put in place industrial and institutional structures to become an innovative leader. Either way China will still rise, just as it has continued to do. However, the notion that China’s surge to the top is unstoppable and unmatched in the world is something to be challenged. The US, and any other country could feel challenged by China’s advancement, but that should not be a reason to bow out. NOTES Read More