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Science and technology in China

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Science and technology in China is currently experiencing rapid growth. Unlike Europe, the country did not experience a historical scientific revolution, and fell technologically behind the Western world for centuries during the middle to late Qing dynasty. There have been many proposed causes for this, including political, cultural, and social factors.

As China has become better connected to the global economy, the government has placed more emphasis on science and technology. This has led to increases in funding, an improved scientific structure, and more available money for research purposes. These combined factors have led to advancements in numerous fields, including agriculture, medicine, genetics, and global change.


Contents

History

Much of the early Western work in the history of science in China was done by Joseph Needham. Among the scientific accomplishments of China were early seismological detectors, matches, paper, dry docks, sliding calipers, the double-action piston pump, cast iron, the iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, the suspension bridge, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the magnetic compass, the raised-relief map, the propeller, the crossbow, gunpowder and printing. Paper, printing, the compass, and gunpowder are celebrated in Chinese culture as the Four Great Inventions of ancient China. Chinese astronomers were also among the first to record observations of a supernova.

One question that has been the subject of debate among historians has been why China did not develop a scientific revolution and why Chinese technology fell behind that of Europe. Many hypotheses have been proposed ranging from the cultural to the political and economic. Nathan Sivin has argued that China indeed had a scientific revolution in the 17th Century and that we are still far from understanding the scientific revolutions of the West and China in all their political, economic and social ramifications. John K. Fairbank argued that the Chinese political system was hostile to scientific progress.

More recent historians have questioned political and cultural explanations and have focused more on economic causes. Mark Elvin's high level equilibrium trap is one well-known example of this line of thought, as well as Kenneth Pomeranz' argument that resources from the New World were made crucial difference between European and Chinese development.

Chinese mathematics evolved independently from Greek mathematics and is therefore of great interest in the history of mathematics.

China's Moon Project

Chang'e I, China's moon probing project is proceeding in full swing in a well-organized way. China's first moon probing is planned to be launched in three years. Four scientific goals have been set for the first stage of the program, Chang'e I moon orbiting project.

Science and technology in China:China Moon Project
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China Moon Project

This was disclosed recently by Ou'yang Ziyuan, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and China's chief scientist on moon probing. He also detailed the project as follows.

Verifications have been conducted on China's moon probing program for years. There were additional verifications on the technical scheme in recent two years. Now everything is going on as scheduled.

The first stage of the program, Chang'e I as it is called, will mostly adopt existing mature technologies and there is nothing insurmountable or fundamental problems technically. However, it takes time to develop all equipment to be installed inside the satellite and to establish systems for orbiting, carrying, monitoring, and ground receiving, as the project aims at the lift-off of a moon probing satellite and making it orbit the moon. It is scheduled that three years is needed before the maiden visit to the moon can be made.

According to the short-term planning, there are three stages for China's moon probing, that is, orbiting, docking, and returning. In the first stage, orbiting, China's first moon exploration satellite will be developed and launched which will conduct a comprehensive, overall, and panoramic observation to capture three-dimensioned graphs of the moon. Researches for the second stage, docking, include the launch of a docking vehicle for lunar soft landing, soft landing test, inspection around the lunar surface by a lunar rover, on-spot explorations, and moon-based astronomical observations. For the third stage, returning, in addition to a docking vehicle, a small-sized sampling capsule will be launched which will collect key samples from the moon and return to the earth. "Orbiting" is presently central to China?ˉs moon probing program.

There are four scientific goals for this stage of "orbiting".

For the first goal, there will be three-dimensioned graphs of the lunar surface. Basic structures and physiognomy units of the lunar surface will be defined precisely. Researches on the shape, size, distribution, and density will be made on the crates on the moon. These researches on the crates will produce data for identifying the age of the surface and early history of terrestrial planets and provide information needed to select the sites selecting for soft landing on the moon surface and for the lunar base.

The second goal is concentrating on the distribution and types of elements. It will be focused on the content and distribution of 14 elements such as titanium and iron which can be exploited. A map of elements distribution around the moon will be sketched. Graphs for lunar rocks, mineral materials and geology will also be drawn respectively. The area rich in specific elements will be identified. And prospects of the development and exploitation of the mineral resources will be evaluated.

The third goal is to detect the depth of the lunar soil through microwave radiation. In this way we can calculate the age of the lunar surface and distribution of the lunar soil on the lunar surface. This lays a foundation for the further estimates of the content, distribution, and quantity of helium-3 which is power generating fuel caused by nuclear fusion.

The fourth goal is focused on the space environment between the earth and the moon. The average distance between the earth and the moon is 380,000 Mm, which is in the earth's far magnetotail. Here the satellite probes solar energetic particles, plasma in solar wind, and the interaction between the solar wind and the moon and between the tail of the magnetic field of the earth and the moon.

Modern structure and influences

Scientists born in China won four Nobel Prizes in Physics. Science and technology have long preoccupied China's leaders; indeed, the People's Republic of China's third and fourth generations of leaders come almost exclusively from technical backgrounds—both Jiang Zemin and Zhu Rongji were trained as electrical power engineers—and have a great reverence for science. Hu Jintao was trained as a hydraulic engineer. Deng Xiaoping called it "the first productive force." Distortions in the economy and society created by Communist Party of China rule traditionally has hurt Chinese science, according to some Chinese science policy experts. Before the 1990s, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, modeled on the Soviet system, placed much of China's greatest scientific talent in a large, under-funded apparatus that remains largely isolated from industry. However, as a result of Chinese economic reform, most Chinese scientific institutions have been encouraged to commercialize their activities, and Chinese scientists have increasingly begun to "Xiahai" (enter the sea) or go into business.

Reforms of the Chinese Academy of Sciences continue even as many Chinese scientists debate what institutional arrangements will be best for Chinese science. The average age of Chinese reearchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has dropped by nearly ten years between 1991 and 2003 as the older generation retired and younger researchers, many educated in the United States and other foreign countries, took their place. CAS also cut the number of its institutes back from 120 in 1998 to 98 in 2005. [1]

Chinese university undergraduate and graduate enrollments more then doubled decade 1995 - 2005. The revival of a research in PRC universities has already given the universities the edge in the number of most cited PRC papers in the Science Citation Index. Some Chinese scientists say CAS is still ahead on overall quality of scientific work but that lead will last only for another five to ten years.

R&D investment by Chinese enterprises is increasing rapidly. Total investment for technological innovation by Chinese enterprises in 2003 totaled 96 billion RMB (about USD 10 billion) 62% of the PRC total. That year state research institutes and universities contributed 26% and 10% of the total funds invested in technological innovation. In 2003, China’s 22,276 large and medium-sized enterprises spent 159 billion RMB on S&T expenses (keji jingfei) and increase of 5% over 2002 and 46% of the national total. In 2003, the enterprise R&D workforce totaled 656,100, about 60% of the national total. In 2003, there R&D workers at state research institutes and at institutions of higher education were 19% and 17% of the total R&D workforce. Patent applications by Chinese enterprises rose 48% to 54,869 in 2003. Breaking down patent application categories, invention patents [faming zhuanli] rose 131%, design patents rose 30% and external appearance patents rose 57%. [2]

Cooperation between enterprises and institutions of higher education has grown rapidly over the past several years. During 1999 - 2003, S&T work fees received by institutions of higher education from enterprises rose from 5.3 billion RMB to 11.2 billion RMB.[3]

Nonetheless, there are serious shortcomings to China’s national innovation system. There are problems with services to help turn S&T work into results and the allocation of national funding to support S&T is far from optimal. Sometimes researchers become shortsighted if they get too close to the market. Another serious problem is that companies facing severe competition look first to purchase foreign technology rather than investing in developing technology and technology development capacity at home in China. Many of the patent applications come from medium sized enterprises (70%) since small enterprises invest little in research. [4]

Communist Party of China oversight

The Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, on May 6, 1995 issued the 'Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on the Acceleration of Progress in Science and Technology'. The 'Decision' set the goal of overall (both public and private) to attain Chinese R&D spending equivalent to 1.5 % of GDP by the year 2000. It urged scientific academies and institutes of higher education to set up high tech companies. The 'Decision' noted that science and technology are the chief forces of social and economic development. The leadership directed Chinese science and technology problems such as population control, feeding the population, the environment (including pollution abatement technologies), and public health (such as pharmaceuticals development). [5]

The 'Decision' called for a reform of the Chinese science and technology structure to meet the needs of the socialist market economy. Science should move out of the institutes into private enterprises. Government research institutes should enter into cooperative ventures with Chinese and foreign companies, decide by themselves what direction their research should take, and become responsible for whatever profits or losses they incur. The flow of personnel, information, and capital must become faster and smoother so that companies (as well as government research institutes and universities which have created their own high tech companies) can orient their research programs according to market needs (and consequently to what the market is willing to fund).

Peer review

Peer review by funding organizations such as the National Science Foundation of China over the past decade has improved the effectiveness of science funding and raised the quality of Chinese science. The NNSFC in 1999 funded 16 % of the 20,000 grant applications it receives each year from its annual budget of RMB 800 million (USD 100 million) which has increased nearly 20 % annually since the founding of the NNSFC ten years ago. NNSFC now awards more research grants on a competitive basic than does the Ministry of Science and Technology which awards RMB 500 million annually. NNSFC grants often serve as seed money attesting to the quality of a project. Local government money often follows thereafter. The Chinese leadership set the goal of total (central and local government) Chinese spending on basic and applied research to reach 1.5 % of GDP by the year 2000. NNSFC spending is a small but growing fraction of that amount.

Shielded from government-wide funding costs, the NNSFC’s budget is becoming an increasingly large part of China’s basic research spending. Grants include neither overhead nor salary but are dedicated to direct research costs. Three types of programs: young scientist, building science in the developing regions of China and new high tech concepts account for 80 % of the NNSFC budget. The young scientist program also provides for short-term (up to six months) training overseas and for the support of visiting foreign scientists.

Chinese scientists serve for two to four years on a review panel for their field. The process from application to decision on the three year grants takes about six months. The NNSFC funds 60 major projects at 5 million RMB per year and 500 - 600 other projects at 1 million RMB per year as well as a large number of smaller grants at 150,000 RMB per year. The grants are low compared with the average U.S. grant size but are larger than they appear since the grants are for direct research costs and exclude salaries which typically account for 60 % of U.S. research grants. One scientist said that the invention of the Chinese word processor made peer review possible, since “I know the calligraphy of everyone in my field!”.

Concerned about corruption in Chinese science [6] Some Chinese scientists, including Professor Liu Ming 刘明 of Zhejiang University in his 2005 book "Critique of the Academic Evaluation System" 学术评价制度批判, argue that interference from government officials and university bureaucrats makes peer review far less effective in China than it could be. The time scientists spend cultivating poltically influential people is lost to scientific research. Liu argues that the command economy mentality of measuring everything by the numbers combined with pervasive political interference results in a great waste of money, human talent as well as considerable corruption in Chinese science. [7]

Research awards and grants

The Distinguished Young Scholars program. About ten researchers are funded on three year grants worth RMB 600,000 per year. Disease gene study from the 863 National High Tech Plan --- RMB 50 million per year.

Grants awarded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China fall within areas which are designated as scientific priorities by the current Five Year Plan. Thus funding decisions are based on a judgment on how research opportunities and interests of researcher match national science goals enunciated in the Five year Plan. Within these designated areas, the peer review panels make awards. A wide range of basic science activities are funded as can be seen from the current “Guide to Programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China" published annually by the Military Medical Science Press (Taiping Rd. No. 27, Beijing 100850 CHINA). The Guide can also be found on the National Natural Science Foundation of China website.

Many fields discussed in the 150 page “Guide to Programs” break down into the areas of mathematical and physical sciences; chemistry and chemical engineering, life sciences, earth sciences, engineering and material sciences, information science, management science, and special interdisciplinary fields such as environmental science, global change, polar region research, natural disaster reduction and fundamental research on scientific instruments.

Notable research areas

Agriculture and medicine

Agricultural research: NNSFC funds applied research for agriculture. Important progress has been made on proteinase inhibitors which kill insects by halting their digestive processes.

Work on medicine and drugs in China includes the development of hepatitis vaccines and studies on the activity of traditional Chinese materia medica. For the first few decades of the PRC, Chinese research focused on examining the traditional pharmacopoeia from the perspective of modern medicine to identify active ingredients in Chinese medicines. This approach was not very successful, said NNSFC officials recently, so now research examines the effect of traditional Chinese medicines on the whole body. These include efforts to understand the effectiveness of traditional pharmaceuticals in such areas as post-stroke rehabilitation.

Some Chinese traditional medicines are now used to reduce suffering and extend the lives of HIV victims in China. Chinese assistance workers in Africa also provide these remedies to their patients. Trachosantheum derived from a traditional Chinese pharmaceutical has been a valuable tool to combating multiple-drug resistant malarial strains in South Asia. Important work on this drug has been done at the Institute of Cell Biology in Shanghai.

Genetics and biodiversity

NNSFC began funding projects on biodiversity in 1993. There are six research groups working on biodiversity, one of which is in Beijing.

China’s Genome project is headquartered in Shanghai. Since 1993, the Chinese Genome Project has carried out genome structural analyses, collected samples of Chinese minorities for a national depository and developed techniques for human genome research informatics. The project started with the rice genome and expanded to human genome research with a focus on disease-causing genes. A liver cancer gene project begun in 1993 is now focusing on chromosome 17. Other groups focus on genes associated with esophageal cancer and psychological disorders. A research group at the Institute of Medical Biology at West China University in Chengdu is looking for disease causing genes in several cell lines. Twelve institutes and nineteen research groups are involved in the human genome project. Shanghai has become a major Chinese center for biotechnology and human genome research.

Global Change

Global change research projects include the carbon cycle in ice zones of Antarctica; the relationship between elevation of carbon dioxide concentrations in atmosphere and aquatic organisms, and the effect of sulphocompounds in China on global change. The global change program is linked to four international programs on global change: the International Geosphere and Biosphere Program (IGBP), the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), the Human Dimensions Program for Global Change (HDP/GC) and DIVERSITAS.

Chinese science strategists see Mainland China's greatest opportunities in newly emerging fields such as biotechnology and computers where there is still a chance for the PRC to become a significant player. Most Chinese students who went abroad have not returned, but they have built a dense network of transpacific contacts that will greatly facilitate U.S.-China scientific cooperation in coming years. The United States is often held up as the standard of modernity in the PRC. Indeed, photos of the Space Shuttle often appear in Chinese advertisements as a symbol of advanced technology. The PRC's small but growing space program, whose Shenzhou spacecraft had carried the first human taikonaut safely into space from PRC on October 15 2003, is a focus of national pride.

The U.S.-P.R.C. Science and Technology Agreement remains the framework for bilateral cooperation in this field. A 5-year agreement to extend the S&T Agreement was signed in April 2001. There are currently over 30 active protocols under the Agreement, covering cooperation in areas such as marine conservation, renewable energy, and health. Japan and the European Union also have high profile science and technology cooperative relationships with the People's Republic of China. Biennial Joint Commission Meetings on Science and Technology bring together policymakers from both sides to coordinate joint S&T cooperation. Executive Secretaries meetings are held each year to implement specific cooperation programs.

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