Shixiong Cao from the School of Economics at the Minzu University in Beijing pulls no punches in trying to answer the question.
He begins by noting although China publishes more research than any other nation their tally of science related Nobels (2 in the last 120-years) is tiny and many so-called advances touted as world class are, in fact, no more than improvements on innovations developed by the West (viz. spacecraft, quantum encryption, TikToc, WeChat, and etc.).
He further notes this lack of scientific impact is curiously at odds with a) the size of the Chinese population, and b) the hordes of engineers it produces annually. So what’s the problem?
In summary:
- Scientific research in China remains centrally planned, by “..government officials who [Don’t read] the international literature or participate in research;..”
- These government officials require research to be practically based and have sanctioned free thinkers who fail to toe the line. This process is obviously inimical to creativity.
- Government holds the purse strings at the major public institutions where scientific research is promulgated. As the author points out this is not the case at, say, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Because the paymasters are ignorant of the work of their underlings there is scope for (and is) unhelpful corruption within academia. University deans are regularly found guilty of mishandling funds.
- Brain drain. Only around 20% of post graduate students return to China after study abroad and only around 28% return after graduating with their first degree. That’s a lot of missing talent.
The paper concludes noting the problem above all is that research in China is still carried out using a dated central planning model that’s already been modified successfully in other areas of the economy.
He suggests closer study of some of the best practice in the West where universities plot their own courses and academics are free to pursue interests not always obviously commercially related.
That the author of this paper is himself an academic working in China suggests the subject may be more open to discussion than in the past and that in itself is cause for some optimism.
You can read the paper in full via this link What is Preventing China from Achieving Crucial Breakthroughs.
Happy Sunday.