The study’s indicators predict that China will soon pass the United States in the critical ability to develop basic science and technology, turn those developments into products and services – and then market them to the world. Though China is often seen as just a low-cost producer of manufactured goods, the new “High Tech Indicators” study done by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology clearly shows that the Asian powerhouse has much bigger aspirations.
I was surprised to read that China now leads the world in the publication of nanotech articles, though the US still produces more citations per article, which speaks of the quality of US publications and is probably what counts more in academia.
As posted previously though, education has traditionally been highly prized in Chinese society, and coupled with China's push on training scientists and engineers who conduct the research needed to maintain technological competitiveness, suggest that it will continue to grow its ability to innovate. In the United States, the twin forces of declining math and science education performance and strong immigration controls may result in decreased research personnel and technical innovators.
It would be interesting to see if societal and cultural change will accompany this blossoming of the creative technical industry in China. Until a further opening up occurs, with active encouragement of independent thought, I'm uncertain their progress will be more than a trickle. Creativity needs a dynamic environment on which to feed - probably these environments already exist in micro-pockets outside the reach of the PRC police. An increase in personal freedoms, accompanied with economic progress and the flowering of the creative industries, would be China's biggest gain and it's triumphant maturation on the global economic scene.
Same goes for Singapore, I hope.
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