Zhang Jun: The illusion of Western countries on Chinese innovation

Zhang Jun

In the past 20 years, China has achieved rapid technological progress, which has largely benefited from China's large investment in R & D.Last year, China's total R & D expenditure accounted for about 2.2%of GDP (GDP).However, China is still far from the forefront of technology.In fact, this distance far exceeds the cognition of most people.

Currently in the West, many economists and observers describe China as a powerful competitor to seek global technical hegemony.They believe that the Chinese government has the ability to make China almost go hand in hand with Europe and the United States through top -down industrial policies.

For example, Harvard University's economics professor and former US Treasury Secretary Summer announced at a meeting in Beijing last March that China created an Andrdquo; although its per capita income was only equivalent to 22%of the United States, butIt has the world's cutting -edge technology and technology giants. In March of this year, in a report, the US trade representative listed And "Made in China 2025Andrdquo; (the blueprint for improving manufacturing capabilities in 2015) as a Chinese attempt to be in a robot.Wait for the high -tech industry to replace the evidence of the United States with strategic significance.

In addition, the US Trade Representative Office reports that China is willing to play its own games. In order to achieve its goals, what it has done has violated the current global rules.In fact, many Westerners warn that China is planning to use its technical -based power to implement a new set of rules; and this set of rules is very different from the long -term implementation rules in the West.

This is a serious statement.Although digital technology is indeed changing China's economy, this is more reflected in the implementation of the business model driven by the mobile Internet, rather than the development of cutting -edge technology. Its impact on consumer models is greater than manufacturing.This change does not only appear in China, but due to the huge consumer market and weak financial supervision, China's development in this area is particularly rapid.

Furthermore, these changes have no obvious relationship with the Chinese government's industrial policy.On the contrary, the growth of China's Internet economy is mainly driven by the entrepreneurial spirit of private companies such as Alibaba and Tencent.

In fact, Western observers are not only media, but also academic circles and government leaders, including US President Trump.Placing.Contrary to the public's views, these policies are just helping to reduce the cost of entry and enhance competition.In fact, this policy encourages excessive entry, and the competition and lack of protection for existing enterprises have been criticized in China.Therefore, if China depends on effective industrial policies, it will not cause too unfair global rules.

Having said that, what is the actual technical prospects of China?Of course, the Chinese have learned quickly. In the past 30 years, Chinese manufacturers have proven to be good at seizing opportunities, imitating, transforming and disseminating new technologies.

However, technological progress in China's business field appears at the bottom of the "smile curve andrdquo; (Smile CURVE) (editor: Andrdquo; Andrdquo;Duan: R & D and marketing, manufacturing in the middle bottom link, the highest added value), and core technology owners have extracted most of the added value from the Chinese manufacturing industry.For example, Danyang City, Jiangsu Province is an optical lens production center for the global market. The manufacturers here can produce the most advanced models.However, due to the lack of the core software of the production of multi -focus lenses, each of them produces a multi -focus lens, they have to pay a fixed patent fee to American companies.Similarly, Chinese auto manufacturers still import their assembly lines from developed countries.

Obviously, the application of digital technology to consumer -oriented business models is very different from the world leaders of developing and producing hard technologies.To obtain the world's leading technical status in areas with a long basis of the basic research and development cycle (such as medicine), it is necessary to continue to invest time, human capital, and financial resources.

In view of this, China may still need 15 to 20 years to catch up with Japan or South Korea in R & D investment, and this gap is even greater in R & D and output (more important factor).Although China can accelerate the pace of R & D by attracting innovative talents and incentive measures to strengthen long -term research, there is no real shortcut to go in terms of the gradual transformation of innovation to innovation.

In this regard, the university plays a pivotal role, not only to cultivate new scientific and technological talents, but also to launch basic research.This means that the focus of universities should not be purely increasing the number of students, but should emphasize the quality of education.

It is not possible to achieve overnight.In fact, China realized in the failure of Andrdquo; "Great Leap Forward andrdquo;

The author is the dean of the School of Economics of Fudan University

Director of Shanghai Think Tank China Economic Research Center

English Title: The Western Illusion of Chinese Innovation

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2018.