Monday, August 21, 2006
Asia: Something new; China
The Economist. London: Aug 5, 2006.Vol.380, Iss. 8489; pg. 50
Getting serious about innovation
AFTER years of prospering as the world's workshop, China now wants to be its laboratory as well. "Innovation" has become a national buzzword, and Chinese leaders have been tossing it into their speeches since the beginning of the year, when President Hu Jintao started an ambitious campaign to drive China's economy further up the value chain. True, new campaigns and catchphrases are declared by the government and the Communist Party in China all the time, and mostly end up fizzling out in puddles of rhetoric. But there are signs that the government intends to back its innovation campaign with more than just words.
In launching their "National Medium- and Long-Term Programme for Scientific and Technological Development (2006-20)", Mr Hu, the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and other top officials have vowed to spend more on science and technology, and to insist on business reforms. Their goal is to move China beyond its dependence on natural resources and cheap labour, and stake its place among the economies that depend on education and information technology.
Officials say privately that the new policy emerged only after years of contentious internal debate. One divide was between nationalists, who advocated a go-it-alone approach towards developing indigenous technology, and others who were more open to international collaboration. There were also disagreements as to whether the campaign should concentrate on scientific mega-projects or incremental innovation.
One target is to reduce China's dependence on imported technology to 30% or less by 2020. According to Professor Fang Xin, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the initiative is a matter of necessity. China must learn to innovate if it is to sustain growth. Foreign firms, she notes, reap more than 60% of the profits from China's high-tech exports. Other officials say that, on average, China's 20,000 large and medium-sized enterprises undertake fewer than five new development projects and generate only two and a half new products each year.
The plan also calls for an increase in research and development spending from its current 1.23% of GDP to 2.5% by 2020, putting China in the same range as OECD countries' current scores. Ms Fang says banks and government departments will be told to help out with their credit, taxation and currency-exchange policies. According to Denis Simon of the State University of New York's Levin Institute, who advises the Chinese government on science policy, this move comes just in time. "If China doesn't do this right," he says, "it risks becoming a good 20th-century industrial economy just when it needs to figure out how to be a 21st-century knowledge-based economy."
But to succeed, says Mr Simon, China needs to attend to other matters as well. These include an "internal brain drain" that sees much of the country's best talent going to work for foreign firms in China, and the country's notoriously lax regime for protection of intellectual-property rights. Mr Simon predicts that such protection will improve as more local businesses with an interest in the matter join the chorus of complaints from foreigners.
Another huge obstacle is the nature of China's educational system, which stresses conformity and does little to foster independent thinking. Confucian philosophy reveres the teacher above all. More innovative Western economies, according to Ms Fang, operate under Aristotle's maxim: "I love my teacher Plato greatly, but I love truth more."
机器翻译：
亞洲： 某類新的東西； 中國
變得嚴重革新
在現在作為世界的車間繁榮也是其實驗室的年之後，中國需要。 "革新”已成為一國家的buzzword，而當總統胡錦濤開始一種雄心勃勃的運動驅使中國在價值連鎖鏈錶鏈上較進一步的的經濟時，中國的領導者一直自從一年的開端以來拋投它到他們的演說中，。真實和新的運動和catchphrases始終被中國中的政府和共產黨宣佈，並且多半直立著在花言巧語的水坑中嘶嘶地響。但是，有政府計劃到的徵候往回其與超過公正的話的革新運動。
在發動他們的“國家的媒介和科學和技術的發展( 2006-20)”，官員胡，首相溫家寶和其它最高的先生已立誓在科學技術上更加花費並且因公堅持，改革。的長期的計劃時他們的目的是在其關於自然資源和廉價勞動力的依賴以外搬動中國，並且在依賴于教育和資訊技術的經濟中間支援其地方。
官員私下地說新的政策出現僅僅在好爭論的內部的辯論的年之後。 一劃分在民族主義者之間，後者朝著開發本土的技術提倡去它孤獨方法，和更加開放到國際的合作的其他人。 也有爭論至於運動是否應該集中于科學兆專案或者逐漸增長的革新。
一個目標是到2020年在輸入的技術上把中國的依賴減少到30%或者較少。 根據教授Fang Xin，中國科學院，主動性是必要性的一個問題。如果它承受增長，中國必須學習革新。 外國的商行她注意到，收割的超過60%從中國高科技的出口得到好處。其它官員說，平均起來，中國20,000個大中型企業承擔除五種新的發展專案並且每年產生僅僅兩和一半新的產品。
計劃也要求研究與發展的一個增加到2020年從到2.5%花費其目前草寫國民生產總值中的1.23%個，將中國放在與經濟合作與開發組織國家的水流得分同樣的範圍中。 Ms Fang說銀行和政府部門將被告訴以他們的信譽，徵稅和貨幣交換政策說明。根據紐約的Levin學院的國家大學的Denis西蒙，就科學政策勸告中國政府，這種運動僅僅及時來。 "如果中國不做這種權力”，他說，“當它需要想出第21 世紀知識經濟時，它風險變成好第20 世紀工業的經濟公正如何。"
但是，取得成功，說西蒙先生，中國也需要處理其它問題。這些包括看見許多國家去為了中國中的外國的商行工作的最好的才能的一“內部的人才外流”，和國家保護知識份子產權的的聲名狼籍鬆馳的政權制度。西蒙先生豫言這樣保護將作為更多本機的商業改進有一種興趣對問題結合來自外國人的抱怨的合唱。
另一個巨大的障礙是中國的教育的系統的性質，這壓力遵照並且做少量培養獨立的思想。 孔子的哲學崇敬上述的教師。 較革新的西方的經濟，根據Ms Fang，在亞里斯多德的準則下作業： “我大大地愛我的教師Plato，但是我愛真理更多。" ¶ 1:07 AM
Getting serious about innovation
AFTER years of prospering as the world's workshop, China now wants to be its laboratory as well. "Innovation" has become a national buzzword, and Chinese leaders have been tossing it into their speeches since the beginning of the year, when President Hu Jintao started an ambitious campaign to drive China's economy further up the value chain. True, new campaigns and catchphrases are declared by the government and the Communist Party in China all the time, and mostly end up fizzling out in puddles of rhetoric. But there are signs that the government intends to back its innovation campaign with more than just words.
In launching their "National Medium- and Long-Term Programme for Scientific and Technological Development (2006-20)", Mr Hu, the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and other top officials have vowed to spend more on science and technology, and to insist on business reforms. Their goal is to move China beyond its dependence on natural resources and cheap labour, and stake its place among the economies that depend on education and information technology.
Officials say privately that the new policy emerged only after years of contentious internal debate. One divide was between nationalists, who advocated a go-it-alone approach towards developing indigenous technology, and others who were more open to international collaboration. There were also disagreements as to whether the campaign should concentrate on scientific mega-projects or incremental innovation.
One target is to reduce China's dependence on imported technology to 30% or less by 2020. According to Professor Fang Xin, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the initiative is a matter of necessity. China must learn to innovate if it is to sustain growth. Foreign firms, she notes, reap more than 60% of the profits from China's high-tech exports. Other officials say that, on average, China's 20,000 large and medium-sized enterprises undertake fewer than five new development projects and generate only two and a half new products each year.
The plan also calls for an increase in research and development spending from its current 1.23% of GDP to 2.5% by 2020, putting China in the same range as OECD countries' current scores. Ms Fang says banks and government departments will be told to help out with their credit, taxation and currency-exchange policies. According to Denis Simon of the State University of New York's Levin Institute, who advises the Chinese government on science policy, this move comes just in time. "If China doesn't do this right," he says, "it risks becoming a good 20th-century industrial economy just when it needs to figure out how to be a 21st-century knowledge-based economy."
But to succeed, says Mr Simon, China needs to attend to other matters as well. These include an "internal brain drain" that sees much of the country's best talent going to work for foreign firms in China, and the country's notoriously lax regime for protection of intellectual-property rights. Mr Simon predicts that such protection will improve as more local businesses with an interest in the matter join the chorus of complaints from foreigners.
Another huge obstacle is the nature of China's educational system, which stresses conformity and does little to foster independent thinking. Confucian philosophy reveres the teacher above all. More innovative Western economies, according to Ms Fang, operate under Aristotle's maxim: "I love my teacher Plato greatly, but I love truth more."
机器翻译：
亞洲： 某類新的東西； 中國
變得嚴重革新
在現在作為世界的車間繁榮也是其實驗室的年之後，中國需要。 "革新”已成為一國家的buzzword，而當總統胡錦濤開始一種雄心勃勃的運動驅使中國在價值連鎖鏈錶鏈上較進一步的的經濟時，中國的領導者一直自從一年的開端以來拋投它到他們的演說中，。真實和新的運動和catchphrases始終被中國中的政府和共產黨宣佈，並且多半直立著在花言巧語的水坑中嘶嘶地響。但是，有政府計劃到的徵候往回其與超過公正的話的革新運動。
在發動他們的“國家的媒介和科學和技術的發展( 2006-20)”，官員胡，首相溫家寶和其它最高的先生已立誓在科學技術上更加花費並且因公堅持，改革。的長期的計劃時他們的目的是在其關於自然資源和廉價勞動力的依賴以外搬動中國，並且在依賴于教育和資訊技術的經濟中間支援其地方。
官員私下地說新的政策出現僅僅在好爭論的內部的辯論的年之後。 一劃分在民族主義者之間，後者朝著開發本土的技術提倡去它孤獨方法，和更加開放到國際的合作的其他人。 也有爭論至於運動是否應該集中于科學兆專案或者逐漸增長的革新。
一個目標是到2020年在輸入的技術上把中國的依賴減少到30%或者較少。 根據教授Fang Xin，中國科學院，主動性是必要性的一個問題。如果它承受增長，中國必須學習革新。 外國的商行她注意到，收割的超過60%從中國高科技的出口得到好處。其它官員說，平均起來，中國20,000個大中型企業承擔除五種新的發展專案並且每年產生僅僅兩和一半新的產品。
計劃也要求研究與發展的一個增加到2020年從到2.5%花費其目前草寫國民生產總值中的1.23%個，將中國放在與經濟合作與開發組織國家的水流得分同樣的範圍中。 Ms Fang說銀行和政府部門將被告訴以他們的信譽，徵稅和貨幣交換政策說明。根據紐約的Levin學院的國家大學的Denis西蒙，就科學政策勸告中國政府，這種運動僅僅及時來。 "如果中國不做這種權力”，他說，“當它需要想出第21 世紀知識經濟時，它風險變成好第20 世紀工業的經濟公正如何。"
但是，取得成功，說西蒙先生，中國也需要處理其它問題。這些包括看見許多國家去為了中國中的外國的商行工作的最好的才能的一“內部的人才外流”，和國家保護知識份子產權的的聲名狼籍鬆馳的政權制度。西蒙先生豫言這樣保護將作為更多本機的商業改進有一種興趣對問題結合來自外國人的抱怨的合唱。
另一個巨大的障礙是中國的教育的系統的性質，這壓力遵照並且做少量培養獨立的思想。 孔子的哲學崇敬上述的教師。 較革新的西方的經濟，根據Ms Fang，在亞里斯多德的準則下作業： “我大大地愛我的教師Plato，但是我愛真理更多。" ¶ 1:07 AM
