The news is another frightening example of how China’s financial and intellectual strength is beginning to eclipse the West and Japan. China’s $5 trillion GDP is expected to be larger than Japan’s this year and that would put it in the No. 2 spot behind the US’s $14 trillion. China’s economic growth is at a 10% rate while in the US the figure is closer to 3%.
The research data from the FT is another example of how government supported industry, financial, and research initiatives give China core advantages over other developed nations. The US government does not have a set of systematic programs to underwrite core research although may of the advances in American research come from federal agencies like NASA and NIH. But, that is not the same as wholesale funding of national R&D activities.
US corporations continue to put hundreds of billions of dollars into research each year, but projects are generally aimed that proving profits to the companies that do the research. There is little sharing of original work because it would often give competitors certain advantages. IBM (IBM) is unlikely to share he work behind important patents with HP (HPQ).
The US government has decided to keep taxpayer dollars from providing vast support of research that would probably drive advances in sectors from healthcare to technology. It is part of a free market economy, but its advantages in a competitive world are have become less certain.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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