China leading US in technology race in all but a few fields, thinktank finds

[jgo]

Source: The Guardian

The United States and other western countries are losing the race with China to develop advanced technologies and retain talent, with Beijing potentially establishing a monopoly in some areas, a new report has said.

China leads in 37 of 44 technologies tracked in a year-long project by thinktank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. The fields include electric batteries, hypersonics and advanced radio-frequency communications such as 5G and 6G.

The report, published on Thursday, said the US was the leader in just the remaining seven technologies such as vaccines, quantum computing and space launch systems.

“Our research reveals that China has built the foundations to position itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower, by establishing a sometimes stunning lead in high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains,” the report said.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/02/china-leading-us-in-technology-race-in-all-but-a-few-fields-thinktank-finds

[SouthernDem4ever]

1. Gee I wonder how that happened

Maybe because we exported all of our manufacturing to China? That coupled with the fact that they can force their population to focus on certain areas helps.

[WmChris]

3. Training

We educate their technicians and scientists in our colleges and industries. They then go back and use that knowledge to advance China's interests. We maybe need to vet applicants for visas more stringently.

[Bayard]

8. Seriously?

Can you site legitimate research to back that up?

[Lucky Luciano]

12. I got a PhD in math from UCLA.

A disproportionately large percentage were Chinese with some Europeans as well.

Americans were probably 20% of the grad students. I bet that other schools are similar. I was at UCLA, where the undergrads are probably 40-50% Asian, but they are more likely to be Asian American.

UCLA may bias things a bit because of the generally Asian descent the students, but I bet this checks out more broadly. For example, when interviewing math PhDs in my field, most are Chinese. Some Europeans…and Americans in last place especially considering we are in America!!!

[Bayard]

15. Math and science have fallen by the wayside for American students

"Thirty countries now outperform the United States in mathematics at the high school level."
"We now have the worst-educated workforce in the industrialized world. "
https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-why-other-countries-keep-outperforming-us-in-education-and-how-to-catch-up/2021/05

The U.S. ranks 14th in higher education attainment at 42% of 25-34 with a degree, 20 points behind the leader, South Korea.
The U.S. ranks 26th in early childhood education (69%)
The U.S. is the 6th worst in terms of high school graduation, with 23% failing to attain a diploma
https://techcrunch.com/2012/09/16/why-its-never-mattered-that-americas-schools-lag-behind-other-countries/#:~:text=The%20scorecard%20for%20the%20U.S.,failing%20to%20attain%20a%20diploma''

"Many American critics believe that the major problem with public education today is a lack of focus on results. Students aren't expected to meet high standards, the argument goes, and the process of education takes precedence over analyzing education results in policy-making circles."
https://fee.org/articles/the-failure-of-american-public-education/#:~:text=Many%20American%20critics%20believe%20that,results%20in%20policy%2Dmaking%20circles.

The Chinese curriculum in maths is a nine-year programme divided into four mathematical stages, running from primary school to grade 9, when a child is 14 years old. The curriculum sets out four teaching periods a week for maths in primary and junior high schools. However, most schools arrange more than five periods each week.
https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-makes-chinese-maths-lessons-so-good-24380#:~:text=15%20hours%20a%20week,primary%20and%20junior%20high%20schools.


The point of all this being, American students start at a disadvantage before they even get to college. When I was in the recruiting biz, (specializing in scientific and technology positions), I'd say most of my PhD's were not from the U.S. But many of them had already applied for Green cards or citizenship here.

[cstanleytech]

13. You forgot to mention stealing as the Chinese government has been caught a number of times

at doing that.

[LonePirate]

2. We're too busy banning books and safe space stickers to worry about science.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. RepubliQons have a solution to every problem

Take away someone's rights.

[Duppers]

17. Indeed! 👍

[catsudon]

4. reason why

USA is trying to catch up with TSMC factory here.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

6. 38/45 advanced technologies actually. Not stealthy Spy balloons!

[70sEraVet]

7. Maybe if we quit electing politicians who consider science to be an enemy of the state!

Men like Einstein and Edison were once our National heroes. Who now? Billionaires? Sports icons?
I dont think we could agree on a national hero anymore.

[Duppers]

18. YES, indeed.

[Martin68]

9. Reminds me of how we felt when Russia launched sputnik, and the US didn't even have a decent

launch vehicle at the time. The first two launches of the Vanguard rocket carrying a satellite resulted in total failure when the rockets exploded before reaching orbit. It came out that the USSR was training 2-3 times more scientists per year than the US was. We played catch up for a while back then, too. I hope Biden's initiatives in the areas of batteries and chips bear fruit.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

10. The best initiative would be free college education in the sciences, for starters.

[Martin68]

11. I totally agree. It's a national security issue for starters.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

19. India and it's legions of highly trained scientists will take over the remaining top spots.

Americans in general have no idea how highly prized higher education is in so many of these rapidly developing countries…Education for the masses, they get it.

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Will only get worse as governments decide what school's should

or should not teach.