China takes stunning lead over US in race for tech domination: Report

A report says the United States and other Western countries are losing the race with China to retain talent and develop advanced technologies. 

A first-of-its-kind report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute published on Thursday found China was pulling ahead in the race for global technological dominance far quicker than previously thought.

China has established a sometimes “stunning” lead over the United States in high-impact research across domains including defense, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology and artificial intelligence, the report said. "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 critical technology tracker shows that, for some technologies, all of the world’s top 10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country (most often the US).”

The report said China leads in 37 of 44 technologies tracked in a year-long project the Institute. The fields include electric batteries, hypersonics, advanced explosives, biological manufacturing, drone technology critical minerals processing and  advanced radio-frequency communications such as 5G and 6G.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first or second in most of the 44 technologies included in the tracker, it said. 

“We also see China’s efforts being bolstered through talent and knowledge import: one-fifth of its high-impact papers are being authored by researchers with postgraduate training in a Five-Eyes country,” it said, referring to the intelligence-sharing grouping of the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

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The report said China’s strides in nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles in 2021 should not have been a surprise to US intelligence agencies.

Across the board, the institute also found there was “a large gap between China and the US, as the leading two countries, and everyone else.”

“The data then indicates a small, second-tier group of countries led by India and the UK: other countries that regularly appear in this group-in many technological fields— include South Korea, Germany, Australia, Italy, and less often, Japan,” it said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has underscored the importance of investment in science and technology. “China’s lead is the product of deliberate design and long-term policy planning, as repeatedly outlined by President Xi Jinping and his predecessors.”

The report’s authors argue their findings should be a “wake-up call” for Western countries to dramatically increase their investment in research and development if they want to have any hope of catching up to China. They say the most pressing short-term risk is that China develops a monopoly over critical technologies that it can then use to 'punish' foreign governments and businesses.

The report challenges a claim often made by US politicians that China’s technological advances are driven mostly by the theft of American intellectual property.

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