Why we need international collaboration – from the perspective of technological development

Editor's note: The article was written by Gai Keke, professor at the School of Cyberspace and Science and Technology at Beijing Institute of Technology. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

With the changing global landscape, whether international collaboration in technical fields and competition among nations are contradictory have become one of the key issues in recent years. The Chinese government expresses an explicit position on international technological collaboration that actively promotes scientific and technological cooperation among countries.

On November 6, 2023, the "International Science and Technology Cooperation Initiative" proposed by China at the first Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange advocated an open and fair international technological cooperation, emphasizing a principle of "science has no borders and benefits all mankind." On November 21, 2024, the "Initiative on International Cooperation in Open Science" was jointly launched by China, Brazil, South Africa, and the African Union, which aims at advocating an open, fair, and non-discriminatory global science and technology development environment and encouraging talent exchanges. A recent initiative, launched at the 2024 World Science and Technology Development Forum, places further emphasis on the principles of openness, win-win cooperation, mutual tolerance, and mutual-trustworthiness.

The initiatives proposed by China present a scientific and sustainable development path for scientific and technological development from the perspective of benefiting all mankind. There are ample reasons to carry out international collaboration for the purpose of win-win technological cooperation. A few obvious aspects are as follows.

First of all, we can see the emphasis on talent exchanges as an important part of promoting knowledge sharing and international technological cooperation. Today, as widely accepted, the development of cutting-edge technologies is highly dependent on talent. On one hand, the scope of knowledge continues to expand along with the advancement of science and technology. This implies that more time and training are required for individuals to become qualified talents in a specific expertise. On the other hand, in many cases, the development of cutting-edge technologies require supports from cross-disciplines collaboration, such as utilizing generative artificial intelligence technology to advance biomedical work. Thus, sharing talents is a key to promoting multidisciplinary innovation when considering the common benefit of all.

If we consider the role of talent training in scientific and technological innovation, international cooperation is beneficial to the cultivation of high-end talents. International collaboration in education facilitates the formation of a large-scale industrial talent reserve, which provides talent resource support for completing supply chains in the context of globalization. In other words, reasonable international distribution of talents is constructive for establishing a healthy international supply chain. It has advantages in reducing costs, popularizing new technologies, improving industrial ecosystem, etc.

Moreover, international technological collaboration may be helpful in eliminating or reducing unnecessary waste of resources during technology development. For example, today's development of advanced technology generally requires unified standards and specifications. Lack of technical standards and specifications will limit technological innovation and development in many cases, especially in multinational business scenarios. Another example is that different technical teams may have varied approaches to dealing with the same technical problem. Solutions based on a full discussion among multiple parties are generally superior to those of a single or fewer participants. In other words, multi-party collaboration not only achieves complementary advantages but also strengthens technical demonstration capabilities. Differences in cultural backgrounds will also bring more perspectives to multinational teams, enabling greater innovation, new products, and new business models.

In addition, maintaining healthy international technical cooperation generally has a positive impact on national and regional peace and stability. Since mutual trust is a condition of transnational collaboration, with a common or similar development goal, such confidence-building helps to form friendly relations between countries. Meanwhile, with growth of emerging technologies, the meaning of security and stability may be enriched. For instance, along with the broad adoption of mobile networks, we can see that cyberspace security has become an important aspect affecting people's daily lives, and international collaboration is an essential aspect of ensuring internet security. In fact, there are many similar situations in multiple frontier fields, such as artificial intelligence security and safety.

Even though several reasons for international technological cooperation have been briefly explained, the advantages are by no means limited to these. What can be seen is that the Chinese government's efforts in this regard are setting a good example for countries committed to building an open, fair, and secure global environment.

(Cover via CFP)