China is now advanced nation in science

By Kwak Sang-soo
Professor of the University of Science and Technology

How much do we, South Koreans, know about China? China is long longer a country with low wages and fakes. The country is developing.

China's Shenzhou 8 spacecraft successfully docked with the Tiangong-1 space lab module twice and returned to Earth last month. The docking was the third of its kind in the world, after the United States and Russia. As a result, China moved one step closer to setting up its own space station around 2020.

China has outpaced South Korea in information technology and bio engineering as well as aerospace.

Beijing already overtook Seoul in 2008 in the amount of money spent on R&D and in the number of patents filed.

In a report, titled “Comparison of Competitiveness of Talented People of South Korea and China,” the Samsung Economic Research Institute (SERI) said Seoul legs far behind not only in quantity but also in quality when it comes to competitiveness of talented people.

As of 2009, China’s R&D manpower in the auto, shipbuilding and petrochemical industries was three or four times more than that of South Korea. China’s R&D personnel in environment, energy, bio and pharmaceutical industries were seven to 10 times more than those of South Korea.

Regarding theses published in the world’s 10 major academic magazines, China ranked second in information technology, fourth in software and third in environment-energy. The comparable rankings for Korea stood at 10th, 17th and 15th, respectively.

The Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), established in 1999, is a top-class think tank both in manpower and equipment. It has about 4,000 employees, including 1,000 bioinformatics scientists. Their average age stands at 25. BGI researchers have continued to present a large number of theses to Science and Nature magazine.

In early 2011, China presented the 12th science and technology development plan for 2011 to 2015. China has become an economic powerhouse, thanks to its “consistent and mighty” science and technology policy it has pursued since the inception of the development plan in 1953. In contrast, whenever a transfer of government occurred in South Korea, there was a change in science and technology policy.

 


http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2011/12/325_101690.html