China is rapidly expanding its research and development frontier. Source: http://theforesighter.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/ asia20biotech.jpg
Since the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, China’s investment in science and technology has increased at an unprecedented rate. According to numbers released last month by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), China has surpassed the European Union (E.U.) in research intensity, devoting 1.98 percent of their GDP to research and development (R&D) in 2012, just above the 1.96 percent of GDP the E.U. invested that year (1). This marks a significant milestone for China as it emerges as a powerful research nation in the global economy.
Though China’s R&D expenditures in absolute terms are still only half of the $418 billion the US spent in 2012, the country is quickly catching up. In 2011, China overtook Japan as the second-largest spender in R&D. While the United States and the European Union have reduced R&D spending due to economic woes, China has maintained its financial commitment to research, investing $163 billion in 2012, an 18% increase from the year before. While the United States and European Union have struggled to keep up with inflation, China has raised its R&D spending by 12-20 percent in each of the last twenty years (2).
Many scientists question the value of placing too much emphasis on R&D spending statistics, however, citing that they are not reliable indicators of innovative activity. China’s massive investment in R&D comes with a lack of breakthrough innovation. Science-policy experts around the world say this is due to systematic aversion to risk in the way China distributes its R&D money. A 2013 study conducted by the U.K. charity Nesta states that China is an “absorptive state” that tends to adopt and adapt overseas technologies rather than work on novel, but risky projects (3). Over the last decade, China has directed most of its R&D funds towards “re-innovation,” a skill it has mastered and used for incremental successes in areas such as high-speed rail, solar energy, supercomputing, and space exploration. Despite these successes, China has yet to achieve a breakthrough advance because its system of safe re-innovation has created a research environment deficient in dynamism and entrepreneurial spirit.
There are other problems with the way R&D money is distributed. Science-policy analyst Cong Cao explained that basic science research funding overwhelmingly goes to scientists with prominent reputations and safe project proposals. As scientists’ reputations are largely judged based on their number of publications, China has seen an explosive rise in scientific output. This rise in quantity has not been accompanied by an equivalent rise in citations of their papers, raising concerns that the publications may be of low quality (1). Plagiarism, scientific misconduct, and wasteful government spending are other unintended consequences of China’s current R&D program that it will have to address if it is to be considered a world leader in research.
The Chinese government has started to address inefficiencies within the system and recently indicated its “ambition for Chinese research to make more of an impact on the world” (4). China is taking steps to restructure its system to give Chinese scientists more opportunity to work on risky projects, stressing its goal to shift towards an economy with a focus on innovation. The Chinese also aim to increase funding for basic research, a critical component of innovation. While almost 20 percent of U.S. R&D resources go to basic research, China only devotes 5 percent of its total R&D funding (1). According to Chinese science and innovation expert Denis Simon, the ultimate goal for China would be a level of innovation equivalent to a Nobel prize or a world-class product like the iPhone (1).
Looking forward, China plans to continue its massive spending on research, projecting that R&D expenditures will increase to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2020 (1).
References:
1. R. Van Noorden. China Tops Europe in R&D Intensity. Nature 505, 144–145 (Jan 2014).
2. G. Naik. Global R&D Spending Growth Is Expected to Slow (Dec 2013). Available at http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303997604579242211359271526 (18 Jan 2014).
3. K. Bound, T. Saunders, J. Wilsdon, J. Adams. China’s Absorptive State: Innovation and Research in China (Oct 2013). Available at http://www.nesta.org.uk/sites/default/files/chinas_absorptive_state_0.pdf (18 Jan 2014).
4. Y. Sharma. Shift to Strategic International Research Collaboration (October 2013). Available at http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20131015152042488 (18 January 2014).