The challenge of China as a science and technology superpower

http://www.theguardian.com/science/political-science/2013/oct/11/china-science-superpower

Version 0 of 1.

The United States-China science and technology relationship is shaped by a central paradox. Reducing climate change, preventing pandemics, and developing new energy sources are all challenges that require global solutions. Moreover, the science that will be the foundation of any technological fixes is increasingly collaborative, spanning different disciplines, institutions, and geographical locations. At the same time, science and technology are an essential component of national economic competitiveness and military power.

As a result, China and the US are collaborators as well as competitors for talent, new ideas, market share and prestige. Managing this paradox requires the US to maintain scientific strength at home and deepen ties to emerging science powers, while simultaneously pressuring China on its mercantilist technology policies and cyber espionage.

The US is still the world leader in science and technology, but as a new Nesta report and others have noted, Chinese capabilities are developing rapidly. China is on track to pass the US in terms of spending on research and development (R&D) in 10 years, and the share of scientific papers published by Chinese scientists in journals included in the prestigious Science Citation Index rose to 9.5% in 2011. China now boasts of a manned space programme and the world's fastest supercomputer, the Tian-he 2.

The Boston Consulting Group has named e-commerce firms Alibaba and Xiaomi Technology, a maker of mobile phone technology, as among the most innovative up-and-coming companies.

The widely held view that Beijing is tilting the playing field to the advantage of Chinese companies has greatly compounded the unease in the US about China's rapid rise as a science power. Chinese policymakers are unhappy with the country being factory to the world and want to move from "Made in China" to "Innovated in China."

Over the past five years, China has adopted a range of policies designed to create "indigenous innovation" and reduce dependence on the west for advanced technologies and on the US in particular. These policies include government procurement, competing technology standards, and requiring technology transfer from multinational corporations in return for market access.

In a 2013 survey of American businesses operating in China, conducted by AmCham China, 37% of the respondents believed de facto requirements for technology transfer were increasing, up from 27% in 2012. In addition, China's failure to protect intellectual property rights leads to massive theft and piracy, and in turn improves the short-term competitiveness of Chinese firms.

Add cyber and industrial espionage to the picture and Chinese ambitions in science and technology become even more menacing. Since Google announced that it was attacked by China-based hackers in January 2010, there has been a steady stream of revelations of other attacks on US technology companies, defence contractors, financial institutions, law firms, media companies, think tanks and universities.

In just one of the most recent cases of industrial spying, US prosecutors charged three Chinese scientists at New York University School of Medicine with illegally sharing research findings with a Shenzhen institute and a Shanghai medical technology company.

Speaking of the efforts to collect technology, William C Hannas, James Mulvenon and Anna B Puglisi, the authors of China's Industrial Espionage, claim China "is in a different league altogether, exceeding the international norm not just in scale, the number and variety of transfer venues, the moral agnosticism of its practitioners, and the degree of government support."

The US must press Beijing, but it also needs to get its own house in order. As a result of sequestration – the automatic cuts put in place by the 2011 Budget Control Act – federal funding for R&D dropped to 0.8% of GDP, the lowest level in 40 years. The government's role in funding basic research has become even more important as business has shifted away from funding "blue sky" projects with uncertain immediate commercial use but with the promise of big breakthroughs. Innovation has traditionally been a bipartisan issue, but the battle between the White House and House Republicans over government closure and the fiscal crisis gives little confidence that R&D investment will be increasing anytime soon.

The US must continue to press China on indigenous innovation and other predatory policies. Raising it to the top of the agenda at bilateral summits is important, for it signals focus and attention. Multilateral pressure is especially important, and the US should work closely with the UK as well as Japan and the European Union. Beijing has in the past been willing to step back when several governments – and governments and the private sector – speak with one voice. A similar united front should be built for cyber espionage, though this will be much more difficult in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations that the National Security Agency hacked into Chinese networks.

The US must not let legitimate concerns about Chinese policies and practices blind it to the opportunities present in the rise of the new science powers – China, and also India and Brazil. For the last 50 years, Washington has assumed the scientific dominance of the US. This assumption is now in question as scientific capabilities become more widely distributed. American society, with its vibrant technology sector, dynamic research universities, and large population of immigrant scientists and entrepreneurs, is well positioned to tap into these new sources of discovery.

<em><strong>Adam Segal</strong> is the Maurice R Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Follow him on Twitter @adschina</em>

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.