China is shifting its national research and development focus from the quantity of published papers to the quality and relevance of technological projects. This policy refinement occurs despite ongoing US-China tech tensions and follows record-high R&D spending and a massive new tech infrastructure investment plan. The Ministry of Science and Technology is leading the effort to evaluate researchers based on practical project outcomes.
The main topics covered are China's R&D policy shift, the US-China tech war context, and China's sustained high investment in technology.
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Inside China Tech: Beijing to sharpen country’s R&D focus
- China wants to ensure researchers are focused on relevant tech projects, not on the number of papers they get published
- The urgency of tackling this issue has intensified amid the ongoing tech and trade war between the US and China
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Hello, this is Bien Perez from the South China Morning Post’s Technology desk, with a wrap of our leading stories this week.
Amid rising tensions with Washington, Beijing has had to downplay some of the country’s technological catch-up efforts, such as the “Made in China 2025” policy road map. Sensing a threat to US global hi-tech dominance, the Trump administration had seized on the plan as an example of what it sees as unfair state intervention in China’s economy.
In reality, however, China’s pace of hi-tech initiatives has not slowed down. The country’s spending on research and development broke a record last year, reaching 2.2 trillion yuan (US$324 billion), according to data released in August by three Chinese government agencies, covering the private and public sectors. That represented 2.23 per cent of China’s gross domestic product – another record high.
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Earlier this year, Beijing introduced a US$1.4 trillion new tech infrastructure investment plan for developments ranging from 5G and artificial intelligence to autonomous driving.
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China’s automated driving technology speeds ahead with research by search engine giant Baidu
China’s automated driving technology speeds ahead with research by search engine giant Baidu
Following that plan, the Ministry of Science and Technology has rene wed its commitment to look carefully at how the work of researchers is evaluated.
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The goal is to ensure the focus is on projects that “achieve real performance”, as opposed to just counting the number of research papers published.
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