Can become a monopoly in 8 areas: China leads the “technology race”

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The United States and other Western countries are losing to China in the race to develop advanced technologies and retain talent, Beijing could potentially establish a monopoly in some spheres. This is according to a new report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute ASPI.

China leads in 37 of the 44 technology areas tracked by the ASPI analysis. These technologies include electric batteries, hypersonic technology, and advanced RF communications such as 5G and 6G.

The report notes that the US leads only in seven technologies that are part of the analysis, in particular – vaccines, quantum computing and space rocket launch systems. The findings are based on research in critical and emerging technology areas, with a focus on papers published in leading journals and heavily cited in further research.

“Our research shows that China has built the foundation to position itself as the world's leading sci-tech superpower by establishing an amazing research leadership with a high level of influence in most critical and emerging technology industries”, – the researchers said.

“Tracking important technologies shows that in some areas, all the top 10 research institutions in the world are located in China and together generate nine times more high-impact scientific work than the second-placed country (most often the United States)”,– the report says.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences ranks first or second in most of the 44 technologies studied.

“China's leadership is the result of purposeful development and long-term political planning,” &ndash ; the researchers added.
The report also states that “China can establish a monopoly in eight technologies, including nanoscale materials and manufacturing, hydrogen and ammonia for energy, and synthetic biology.”

Institute also found that there is a large gap between China and the US, both the top two countries and all others.

“The data point to a small group of second-tier countries led by India and the UK – other countries regularly appearing in this group – in many technological industries – include South Korea, Germany, Australia, Italy and less frequently Japan”,– the report says.

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