Photo: iStock
Gergely Salát
02/05/2024 09:00
The legendary science historian Joseph Needham formulated the famous Needham Question: why is it that, until a few centuries ago, the Chinese were ahead of everyone else in technology, but the industrial revolution took off in Europe? Until now, scientists have not been able to answer this question, and it may well be that by the time an explanation is found, the question will have become moot. The technological revolutions of our time are largely taking place in China.
Today's Chinese inventor is no longer an experimental alchemist, craftsman or oracle, as in the old days, but rather a professional engineer with a large R&D budget at his disposal. He is now conscious of the need to create a new product that will put his company ahead of the competition. In China, discoveries have long been made by accident, but since the 20th century the state has been using every means at its disposal to spread the belief that scientific progress will solve people's problems. Recently, the resources have been provided. In 2000, only 0.8 per cent of China's GDP - dwarfed by today's - was spent on R&D, by 2020 it will be 2.41 per cent, and the 2.5 per cent target has now been exceeded. China is the world's second biggest R&D spender after the US, with the EU, which likes to see itself as an innovation superpower, lagging far behind.
China's modernisation programme started late and from a low base, so it took a long time for spectacular results to emerge, but it is now clear that Chinese techno-optimism was not without foundation. The number of patents registered in a country is one of the most important measures of its capacity to innovate. In 2000, China was nowhere to be found in this respect: at that time, the authorities had received a few tens of thousands of patent applications, while the US figure was around 300,000. The latter has now roughly doubled, only for the Chinese number to grow exponentially, overtaking the US in applications filed in 2011 and registered in 2015. With more than 1.5 million applications filed annually in the 2020s, China now has more innovations applied for - and approved - than the nine countries that follow it combined.
Of course, quantity should not be confused with quality. In China, subsidies are provided to encourage companies and institutions to register as many patents as possible, regardless of their applicability, and in some fields doctoral students are expected to have their own patents. The number of patents that contain real innovation is thus much lower, but China is still among the world leaders in this respect. High-speed rail, 5G devices, fintech solutions, artificial intelligence, e-mobility - just a few areas where China is an innovation superpower. As it has always been, except for a brief period.
The author is a senior researcher at the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs and head of the Department of Chinese Studies at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University
