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BIZCHINA> Review & Analysis
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Time to turn attention to science & technology
By Rao Yi and Shi Yigong (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-09-03 11:09 [The authors Rao Yi and Shi Yigong are professors respectively with Peking University and Tsinghua University. The article is reprinted from Global Times.] In the 29th Olympics in Beijing, China outnumbered the United States by snatching more than 10 percent of the total gold medals. That could serve as a persuasive testimony that the country has pushed itself to the list of the world's top sports powers. Compared with its marvelous sports performance, China, however, has achieved far less recognition in science. It has never won a Nobel Prize, a top prize gauging one's contribution to the world in a certain realm, still far behind Britain, Germany and Japan, not to mention the US.
Over the past years, China has made great headway both in sports and science. In its first participation in the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, the country dispatched a six-member delegation, with only one athlete to compete. 52 years later in the 23rd Olympics in the same city, China's athletes bagged a total of 15 gold medals, marking the country's gradual advancement to the circle of athletics powers. In the 2004 Athens Olympics China was second only to the US in the gold table, and it has a overwhelming superiority to other countries in gold medal in this year's Beijing Olympics, which further consolidated the country's status in the world's sports. In the realm of science, China, however, has not established an international status proportionate with its comprehensive national strength. At many international academic conferences or in many influential international academic magazines, our Chinese scholars have had only a very limited influence. In the world's 20th congress of genetics convened in Berlin in July, for instance, none of the 12 keynote speakers were from China, and only two Chinese participants were invited to deliver speeches, 1.2 percent of the total 168 speakers. Also in the world-renowned magazine The Cell, no Chinese scholar published an article from 1981 to 2004. Like sports, boosting science also needs substantial policy support. In recent years, the government has increased financial input in science and technology, but their smooth development will continue to be hindered by bottlenecks if no improvements are made in the problematic fund-distribution mechanism. (For more biz stories, please visit Industries)
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