China has ripped a page from the U.S. response to Sputnik, warns a high-tech trade group, and that may eventually mean a crash landing for America’s leadership in technology.
In the latest installment of its Competitiveness Series, released this morning, the AeA (formerly the American Electronics Association), examines China’s “15-Year Science and Technology Plan” unveiled last year with an eye toward assessing its feasibility.
“China’s ’15-Year Science and Technology Plan’ looks all too familiar,” says AeA CEO William Archey in a press release. “It looks remarkably like the blueprint the United States developed in 1958 in response to the Soviet launch of Sputnik. Here we are months away from the 50th anniversary of Sputnik and the Chinese are cribbing from our playbook. They see how successful it was in making the United States the preeminent scientific, technological, and economic power on the planet.”
Hyperbole wrapped in self-interest? Perhaps. But the Chinese plan does feature some ambitious goals, including: boosting R&D spending from 1.4 percent of the country’s economic output to 2 percent within three years and 2.5 percent by 2020. If it were to reach these targets, China’s R&D spending would be “in the same league as Japan and the United States,” according to the AeA.
You can download the full report here, where you’ll also see this list of its highlights:
— In early 2006, China announced a 15 year plan to boost science, technology, and innovation with the long-term goal of becoming a preeminent global economic and technological power.
— Though every detail of the plan has not been made public, we know it calls for China to raise R&D investment from the current 1.4 percent of its economic output to 2.0 percent by 2010 and 2.5 percent by 2020.
— China is pouring investment into its universities to create world class education and research centers. Since 1998, state financing for higher education has more than doubled, reaching $10.4 billion in 2003.
— China had 926,000 researchers in 2004, second only to the United States – 77 percent more than it had in 1995.
— China’s 15 year plan intends to move the country beyond its current reliance on foreign technology to spawn “indigenous innovation.”
— China faces numerous challenges in enacting its 15 year plan: protecting intellectual property; reforming capital markets; encouraging risk taking; and embracing the free flow of ideas required for innovation.
And if you’re looking for more here-and-now signs of China’s emerging high-tech prominence:
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Chinese Internet company Alibaba.com is planning an initial public offering for its business-to-business unit.
China’s top search engine, Baidu.com, posted a powerhouse of a first-quarter financial statement.
And the country has even gotten its own version of MySpace.
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