Editor's note: This article is translated and edited from an article published on the WeChat public account ACCEPT-Tsinghua. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

One cannot merely look at research and development (R&D) investment when comparing the scientific and technological strength of China and the United States. Nor can one look at the market value of tech companies only. Instead, analysts should base their comparison on the type of technology. Compared with the U.S., China leads in industries with a short innovation chain and a focus on integration but lags in others that require long-term innovation, capital and technology accumulation.

China is like a "sprinter" in science and technology, with strong explosive force. In recent years, China has made remarkable progress in areas including big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and the internet. These areas are characterized by a short innovation chain, short-term concentrated investment of capital and technology, and explosive growth. Also, these areas require many programers and concentrated technical input.

According to a report by the China Instrument Manufacturer Association, China published the most scientific papers on AI in 2017 – and those papers were also the most frequently cited. Besides, China has filed the largest number of AI patents in the world. The country had 18,232 AI professionals in 2017, accounting for 8.9 percent of the world's total, second only to the U.S. (13.9 percent).

China's big data industry is experiencing explosive growth, with the market size of China's digital economy reaching 27.2 trillion yuan (about four trillion U.S. dollars) in 2017, the Forward Industry Research Institute reported, accounting for 32.9 percent of its GDP.

At the same time, the long-term reform and development of China's education system have produced an increasing number of talented people, which has accumulated competitive human capital for China.

According to the Educational Statistics Yearbook of China 2016, a total of 7.6 million Chinese graduated from universities and colleges in 2016, of whom 3.15 million with science and engineering degrees, accounting for 41.5 percent of the national total. By contrast, 2016 saw a total of 564,000 graduates with such degrees in the U.S., accounting for only 14.9 percent of all graduates.

A large number of science and engineering graduates will directly contribute to the accumulation of the scientific and technological labor force in China. They will provide a solid foundation for innovation, effectively support China's technological progress and industrial upgrading, and help China to lead the world in those disciplines.

But China faces many difficulties in areas that require long-term innovation, capital and technology accumulation. The semiconductor industry is such an area, which is divided into upstream industrial software and downstream manufacturing.

Three major U.S. companies almost monopolize upstream industrial software. The market share of Empyrean Software, a representative of Chinese company of this kind, is tiny. The development of the Chinese semiconductor industry can not be achieved overnight. It requires long-term sustainable financial investment and the support of mathematics and other related fields.

The U.S. leads the world in the semiconductor industry because it has invested heavily in the field since World War II, and it has been doing so for 70 years. U.S. chip companies are very focused on technology R&D. Intel, the largest U.S. chip company, invested as much as 13.1 billion U.S. dollars in R&D alone in 2017.

Five of the world's top ten semiconductor companies in 2017 that spent the most on R&D were from the U.S., accounting for 65.6 percent of all money invested. By contrast, China's semiconductor industry started late. Meanwhile, its investment and efforts made in the field are far from enough, while relevant human capital is also insufficient.

Those areas with a long innovation chain and a lack of long-term accumulation have affected the future development of some industries in China. In the context of ongoing Sino-U.S. economic, trade and technological frictions, it is especially urgent for China to develop core technologies to make up for the shortcomings.

China needs to face up to the technological differences with the U.S. and focus on addressing its weaknesses in some core technical fields while maintaining its advantages in others. The chain of innovation in these areas is long, and the amount of money required for development is enormous, so sustained investment is needed. It is difficult for enterprises to address these difficulties alone – they need governmental support. The government should study these problems, clearly identify the most vital technologies that China needs the most, provide strong support, and increase capital and technology input.

At the same time, private enterprises should be encouraged to learn from Huawei and other companies to improve their technological innovation capabilities. Huawei attaches great importance to innovation. According to the World Intellectual Property Indicators 2018, Huawei ranks seventh in terms of the total number of patents (14605) filed by global companies from 2013 to 2015, making it the highest-ranking private company.

Huawei's success is closely linked to its continued large R&D investment. According to its annual report last year, Huawei spent 101.5 billion yuan (about 15.1 billion U.S. dollars) on R&D in 2018, accounting for 14.1 percent of its annual revenue. Over the past decade, Huawei has been committed to spending more than ten percent of its sales revenue on R&D each year and maintained an upward growth trajectory.

It is understandable that not all private enterprises can afford such high R&D investment every year, but they should take Huawei as an example to continually focus on strengthening R&D and make sustained investment within their own capabilities.

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