How strong is China's scientific and technological strength in the end? Around this issue, there are different views in society. The Ministry of Science and Technology has recently submitted a report on China's scientific and technological strength after research.
If a series of data in the report is arranged down, is a measure of China's scientific and technological strength of the "detailed list" --- China has become a true scientific and technological human resources power.
At present, the total number of scientific and technological human resources is about 35 million, ranking first in the world; in 2006, the total number of researchers and developers in China amounted to 1.42 million, second only to the United States, ranking second in the world.
The scale of investment in science and technology continues to grow, and the intensity of investment continues to increase, and has become an important force in the global R & D investment. 2006, the total amount of social science and technology expenditures amounted to 450 billion yuan, and the total amount of social research and development expenditures amounted to 300.31 billion yuan, ranking 5th in the world; the intensity of investment in research and development reached 1.42%.
■■Preliminary basic conditions to support the development of science and technology
National laboratories and national key laboratories and other scientific research bases have reached the level of equipment of similar international laboratories, and formed a more complete system of scientific and technological infrastructure, including research and experimental bases, large-scale scientific instruments, natural scientific and technological resources, scientific data and scientific and technological literature, and some areas have reached or are close to the world's advanced level. China has built a nationwide information and communication infrastructure network, and its network scale and technology rank among the world's top. By the end of 2006, China had 830 million telephone users and 480 million mobile users, all ranking first in the world; 137 million Internet users, 59.4 million Internet-accessed computers, and 35.3 million broadband accesses, all ranking second in the world.
In recent years, the level of China's intellectual property output has increased dramatically, with the annual number of domestic invention patent applications exceeding the number of foreign applications for three consecutive years, of which the number of trademark, utility model and design patent applications ranked No. 1 in the world for many years. 2006 China's invention patent applications ranked No. 4 in the world.
The ability of basic research and cutting-edge technology innovation has been significantly enhanced. China's world ranking in terms of the total number of international papers has risen from 15th in 1991 to 4th at present, accounting for 7% of the total number of papers in the three major international retrieval systems (SCI, EI, and ISTP), and has entered the second square in the world, comparable to that of the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. In the field of cutting-edge technology, a number of core technologies have been broken through, a large number of independent intellectual property rights have been achieved, and a number of major independent innovations have emerged, such as manned spaceflight, super hybrid rice, high-performance computers, ultra-large-scale integrated circuits, international standards for third-generation mobile communications, and advanced national defense weapons and equipment.
■Enterprises become the main force of technological innovation
Private science and technology enterprises developed from more than 7,000 20 years ago to 150,595 in 2006, and have become the living force to enhance independent innovation capability and the vanguard of building an innovative country. The number of enterprises possessing independent intellectual property rights has increased rapidly, and major technological achievements developed by enterprises have emerged continuously, with a number of innovative enterprises emerging in the fields of electronics and communications, electric power equipment, new energy, transportation and so on.
The scale of high-tech industry is already at a high level in the world. At present, the total output value of China's high-tech industry has reached 343.67 billion yuan, contributing 15.5 percent to the growth of the total output value of all manufacturing industries.
■■Scientific and technological support capacity significantly improved
In recent years, China's basic industry, processing and manufacturing industries, as well as emerging industries, technological innovation capacity has been greatly improved. A number of major key technologies have been conquered, which have strongly supported the construction of the Three Gorges Project, the West-East Electricity Transmission, the West-East Gas Transmission, the South-to-North Water Diversion, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and other major projects. A number of major technological breakthroughs have been made in the scientific research of staple crops such as major grains and cotton, resulting in a number of major agricultural technological achievements such as super hybrid rice, hybrid corn, and genetically modified insect-resistant cotton, which have laid the foundation for increased agricultural production and food security. In the field of energy, oil exploration, large-scale coal liquefaction engineering equipment, large-scale hydropower equipment and other new energy development and utilization has made important progress, laying the foundation for adjusting the energy structure and ensuring energy security.
Scientific and technological advances in population and health care have greatly improved people's health. Technological advances in population control and eugenics have made an important contribution to realizing the historic shift in population reproduction from "high births, high deaths and high growth" to "low births, low deaths and low growth". Important breakthroughs have been made in the prevention and control of major diseases such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and tumors, as well as major infectious diseases such as AIDS, viral hepatitis, SARS virus and highly pathogenic avian influenza.
■Part of the world's leading fields
A pattern of all-round, multi-level, wide-ranging and high-level international scientific and technological cooperation has been formed. At present, China has established scientific and technological cooperation with 152 countries and regions, and signed intergovernmental cooperation agreements with 100 of them. China has participated in international large-scale scientific and engineering programs such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), Galileo global satellite navigation, and the human liver proteome. To date, China has participated in some 350 international scientific and technological organizations, and 206 scientists have held leadership positions at all levels in international scientific and technological organizations.
"In the past five years, the basic conditions and environment for China's scientific and technological development have been increasingly improved, its scientific and technological innovation capacity has been steadily enhanced, some fields have entered the world's forefront, the overall gap with the international advanced level has been further narrowed, and its influence on the world's scientific and technological development has been rapidly increasing." The person in charge of the research office of the Ministry of Science and Technology said, "Science and technology provides strong support for economic and social development and national security, and lays a good foundation for enhancing the ability of independent innovation and building an innovative country."