Cong Cao

Opinion | Why decoupling from the US will impede China’s technological progress

China has made huge advances in science and technology in recent decades, boosted by an influx of foreign investment and a rise in international cooperation

Now that Western powers see China as a rival and want to put a cap on its tech capabilities, the country will have to work hard to strengthen domestic efforts

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Cong Cao

Published: 9:15am, 14 Sep 2022

China has spent decades “walking on two legs” in its pursuit of scientific and technological innovation. Now, its decoupling from the US is injuring one leg, impeding its journey to become a world leader in science and technology.

The steps it has taken – on the input side, enlarging expenditure on research and development (R&D) and nurturing talent, while increasing the number of publications by Chinese scientists in international journals, boosting patenting activities and exporting hi-tech goods on the output side – represent a synergy between domestic growth and global integration. The two sides have been mutually reinforcing.

This feature of China’s science and technology ecosystem has propelled its upwards trajectory, but it now also points to challenges facing the country amid a changing international environment.

Until recently, a generally friendly international environment allowed China to take advantage of the benefits offered by globalisation – which is more than an economic phenomenon – and advance economically as well as technologically.

Shi Guangsheng, then Chinese trade minister, signs a document confirming China’s membership of the World Trade Organization, on November 11, 2001, in Doha, Qatar. Photo: AP

Following its opening up, the country attracted an enormous amount of foreign direct investment. In recent years, FDI has contributed as much as 15 per cent of China’s overall expenditure on research and development. China is deeply intertwined with the global economy.