China’s relentless focus on science and technology could ultimately lead it to become the world leader in technology. In China, the labor pool is getting increasingly sophisticated, the leadership is focused on innovation, and the country is adopting policies to pressure U.S. firms into transferring their technology.
The country’s focus on science and technology may be unstoppable for five reasons. First, China’s leadership understands engineering, with eight of the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau holding engineering degrees. Additionally, China’s leadership is striving to out-innovate the U.S., which translates to more money invested in technological innovations, from supercomputers to nanotechnology. Third, China’s science and technical talent pool is vast. Another boon for the Chinese innovation movement is that just 3 percent of all ninth-grade students in the United States will eventually earn an undergraduate degree in science or engineering. Finally, China is getting almost all of the U.S.’s technology and succeeding in creating what it calls an indigenous innovation policy. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says the policy is designed to encourage technology transfer and force U.S. companies to transfer their research operations to China in exchange for access to its markets.
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