Abstract
International competition has become fiercer with the onset of the twenty-first century. The essence of this competition lies in the area of science and technology. Whoever scales the peak of global science and technology innovation will become the leader in global economic development. China is now becoming a forerunner in such areas. In 2006, the Chinese government published the “Outlined Medium- and Long-Term Program for Scientific and Technological Development (2006–2020)”, drawing a grand blueprint for building an innovative country. The United States, Japan and the EU have since followed with similar directive documents regarding developments in science and technology.
It is a matter of course for late comers to catch up. Our country has many superior conditions and we should be more confident of catching up and overtaking science and technically advanced countries in a not too long a time. Simply put, we must use score of years to catch up with and overtake the levels that took Western bourgeoisie several hundred years to attain (Mao Zedong 1996).
Mao Zedong (1964)
Innovation must become the main driving force behind economic and social development and knowledge innovation must become the core factor for building up the country competitive power.
Hu Jintao (2011)
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Notes
- 1.
In September 2009, the US government published “A Strategy for American Innovation: Driving Towards Sustainable Growth and Quality Jobs”, promising to “educate the next generation with twenty-first century knowledge and skills while creating a world-class workforce” and to “invest three percent of GDP in R&D.”
- 2.
In February 2010, the Japanese government published the “Fourth Basic Outlined Program for Science and Technology Development”, stating to further intensify investments and the training of special talents.
- 3.
In March 2010, the EU Commission published “Strategic Plan 2020”, which listed a series of objectives regarding research and innovation and funding and employment. In addition, it stated that R&D expenditure should increase from 1.9% of GDP to 3%, and that the percentage of those with just a basic education should not exceed 10%, and at least 40% of the people aged 30–34 years should receive a higher education.
- 4.
Premier Wen Jiabao said at the National Personnel Work Conference that in the present-day world international competition is becoming fiercer each day; this level of competition can be seen in science and technology, education, and personnel. Science and technology holds the key; education serves as the foundation and personnel are fundamental. The State Medium- and Long-term Personnel Development Program and the State Medium- and Long-term Science and Technology Development Program have already been issued and implemented, and along with the State Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Program, mutually support each other and are closely related, with each having its own emphasis. They represent top-level design and system planning in state development. People’s Net, May 27, 2010.
- 5.
In a general sense, the population dividend period is based on the proportion of the working age population in the total population. It drops with a drop in the birth rate. When the working age population (15–64 years) reaches 60%, it is considered to enter a period of population dividend.
- 6.
The main indicators for science and technology human capital include head count of R&D personnel and full-time equivalents of R&D personnel. According to a study by UNESCO, to measure human capital in science and technology by head count of R&D personnel could result in an underestimation and to measure human capital in science and technology by full-time equivalents of R&D personnel could result in an overestimation.
- 7.
The full-time equivalents of R&D personnel are a main indictor to measure S&T input. It refers to the total number of full-time personnel in research and experimental development and non-full-time personnel converted by work volume. It is the oft-used indicator to compare S&T human resources input.
- 8.
Personnel contribution refers to the contribution of human capital to economic growth. It is a core input factor in economic operations. It is the share of contributions to economic growth through its own progressive gains and external spillover effect.
- 9.
Thomson Reuters Web of Science databank has collated the total number of research papers per country and its percentage in the total number of papers published worldwide. This provides an indicator for the S&T innovation capacity of a country. These science papers mainly come from Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI).
- 10.
The quality of a country’s papers is usually measured by the number of citations and the world ranking in a given period of time (10 years).
- 11.
According to SCI databank, in the 10 years from 1994 to 2004, China ranked 18th in the world. In the 10 years from 2000 to 2010, China edged into the top ten (8th), with a average citation for each paper of 5.9. By this trend, China may advance into the top 5 before 2015, ranked 5th. China has realized, 5–7 years ahead of time, the goal set in the Medium- and Long-term Development Program for Science and Technology (2006–2020). Nevertheless, China still has a considerable gap to bridge with advanced countries such as the United States (15.8), the Netherlands (15.3), and the UK (14.7) in terms of the average citations per paper (see China S&T Information Institute: Statistical Result of China’s S&T research papers, 2010).
- 12.
According to data from the World Intellectual Property Right Organization, 4,065 patent applications were registered by domestic residents in 1985, 0.6% of the world’s total. By 2008, this figure increased to 194,579, accounting for 18.2% of the world’s total.
- 13.
High-tech products refer to those with high R&D intensity, such as aerospace, computer, medicine, scientific instruments and meters, and electronic equipment. The definitions are similar to World Development Indicators, OECD High-Tech Statistics and Pavitt’s Taxonomy (Martin Srholec 2007).
- 14.
The five indicators are (1) number of paper published in international publications, (2) amount of creation patent applications by domestic residents, (3) number of R&D scientists and engineers, (4) R&D and experiment expenditure and (5) export of high-tech products.
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Hu, A., Yan, Y., Wei, X. (2014). The World’s Strongest Innovative Power. In: China 2030. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-31328-8_5
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