By CGTN's Shi Yingchang
It is abundantly clear that China’s industrial transformation and continuing economic growth depends on the strength of China’s science.
But on what does the strength of China’s science depend? Why has science in China lagged so far behind science in the West, considering that, for a millennium, science in China led the world?
China’s leaders are now determined to make dramatic changes. Here's what it takes. First, diagnose the problem: What is it about China’s system, or about China’s culture, that has inhibited world-class science – and retarded innovation in general? Then, discern solutions: How can China science be transformed?
China's brand-new heavy-lift carrier rocket Long March-5 blasts off from Wenchang Space Launch center in south China's Hainan province, at 8:43 p.m. Beijing time, Nov. 3, 2016. /Xinhua Photo
Innovation, especially in science and technology, is the first of the Five Major Development Concepts, President Xi Jinping’s overarching guidelines for China.
But innovation cannot be generated on demand, as if electricity from a grid. Innovation emerges naturally, spontaneously, from a specific kind of science-inducing culture. Four features of such a science culture are:
1) strict meritocracy where what counts are discoveries, not seniority or relationships;
2) doing research well is far more important than doing it quickly;
3) uncertainty in experiments is appreciated, even failure is acceptable;
4) deep appreciation of basic science, even if there are no apparent practical applications.
China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Dawodang depression of Pingtang county in southwest China’s Guizhou Province /CFP Photo
China can become a fully modernized nation by 2049 - the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, China’s national goal – only if China’s science leads the way. But China’s science must transcend domestic development: it must reflect the high ideals of Chinese civilization and commit to share its contributions with the world.
This coming Sunday, "Closer to China" examines the quality of China's science.
