China leading US in technology race in all but a few fields: New Report

According to a recent assessment, the United States and other western nations are falling behind China in the race to create cutting-edge technology and keep talent, with Beijing possibly gaining a monopoly in some sectors.

In a year-long investigation by think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China has taken the lead in 37 of the 44 technologies monitored. Hypersonic technology, electric batteries, and modern radio frequency communications like 5G and 6G are some of these sectors.

The report, which was released on Thursday, said that the US was the world leader in just the final seven technologies, including space launch systems, quantum computing, and vaccinations.

The study focused on articles that were published in prestigious journals and were heavily cited by later studies, claiming that these studies had a “strong impact” on research in important and developing technology domains.

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The report stated: “Our research demonstrates that China has constructed the foundations to position itself as the global scientific and technology powerhouse, by creating a sometimes astonishing lead in high-impact research across the majority of essential and emerging technology disciplines.

“The vital technology tracker shows that, for some technologies, all of the top 10 global research institutions are based in China and are producing nine times as many high-impact research publications as the second-ranked nation, which is typically the US.”

According to the research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences placed first or second in the majority of the 44 technologies tracked.

One-fifth of China’s high-impact articles are written by researchers who received postgraduate training in a Five-Eyes country, the report stated, referring to the intelligence-sharing alliance that consists of the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

As consistently stated by Xi Jinping and his predecessors, “China’s lead is the product of purposeful design and long-term strategic planning.”

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In his State of the Union speech last month, Joe Biden stated that the United States was “spending in American ingenuity, in industries that will define the future, and that China’s leadership is focused on dominating”.

Yet, according to the institute, China faces a significant risk of securing a monopoly in eight technologies, including the production of nanoscale materials, the use of hydrogen and ammonia as fuel, and synthetic biology.

The report said China’s strides in nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles in 2021 should not have been a surprise to US intelligence agencies “because, according to our data analysis, over the past five years, China generated 48.49% of the world’s high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonics, and it hosts seven of the world’s top 10 research institutions in this topic area”.

The institute discovered “a big disparity between China and the US, as the leading two countries, and everyone else” across the board.

The report stated, “The data then suggests a tiny, second-tier group of countries dominated by India and the UK: other countries that frequently appear in this category—in many technological fields—include South Korea, Germany, Australia, Italy, and less frequently, Japan.

The study was carried out by a group under the direction of Jamie Gaida, a senior analyst with the institute’s international cyber policy center. It was presented at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi on Thursday.

The institute acknowledged that the Special Competitive Studies Project, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing America’s long-term competitiveness, and the Global Engagement Center of the US State Department jointly sponsored the research.

The institute also urged democracies to set up sizable sovereign wealth funds for innovation, research, and development in key technologies that they continuously contribute to. With industry participation, it advises devoting 0.5% to 0.7% of gross domestic product.

It stated that while governments should allot some cash to high-risk, high-reward “moonshot” ventures, sovereign wealth funds should continue to support the most promising programs.