AnGrz_Z_K_Jailer
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It's a little old article but very intresting to read ... Its a clear sing of China domination in comming years or atleast balance of power in the world ...
Uttara Choudhury / DNASunday, January 17, 2010 2:10 IST
NEW YORK: America remains the worlds science and technology leader by minting a record number of patents and having prolific inventors in Silicon Valley and university and company labs, but China is gaining ground, the National Science Board said Friday in its congressionally mandated biennial report on science and engineering.
The report is not just about where we stand, its about where we are headed, National Science Foundation director Arden Bement said at the White House while rolling out the report.
The 2010 report declared 2007 was the year China caught up to the US in the number of researchers and doctoral degrees it handed out in natural sciences and engineering. The US awarded 22,500 doctorates in natural sciences and engineering in 2007, but more than half of them were awarded to foreign nationals from countries like India, China and Russia.
Past experience suggests that most new Ph.D.s will stay in the US. Despite the long wait to get a Green card, sluggish US economy and hype about reverse brain drain, the report shows that 60 per cent of temporary visa holders who earned doctorates in science in engineering in 1997 were still working in the US and had no intention of leaving.
While the US is the largest R&D performing nation representing one-third of total world investment Asia has narrowed the gap due to the sustained annual increases by China, said Jose-Marie Griffiths, a member of the National Science Board.
The US accounted for nearly a third of $1.1 trillion spent on research and development globally in 2007. Spending on R&D in the US was $398 billion in 2008 up from $373 billion in 2007. For the 10 years ending in 2007, spending on research and development grew between 5 per cent and 6 per cent annually in Japan and the European Union.
Spending in India, South Korea and Taiwan grew an average 9 per cent to 10 per cent a year over the same period. In China, it averaged more than 20 per cent, noted the Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 report.
China is now the third-largest R&D performer in the world behind the US and Japan and is moving ahead of Germany, France and the United Kingdom, Griffiths said.
Inventors in the US, the European Union and Japan account for nearly 90 per cent of the worlds high-value patents. US patenting by Chinese and Indian inventors remains modest. Researchers in China accounted for only about 1 per cent of US patents granted in 2008. Inventive activity in China appears elusive, at least as indicated by patents filed in a major Western market, the report noted.
The report noted that the US has a comparatively higher-than-average share of patents in aerospace and pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical equipment and medical electronics.
Source : China narrows technology gap with US - dnaindia.com
