'China way ahead of US, other developed countries in developing advanced tech': Australian Strategic Policy Institute

New Delhi: The United States has hitherto maintained its technological edge over the rest of the world, but no more, says an Australian think tank, claiming China is significantly ahead of US and other western countries in developing advanced tech.

In a year-long initiative by think tank the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, China has taken the lead in 37 of the 44 technologies monitored.

Hypersonic technology, electric batteries, and modern radio frequency communications like 5G and 6G are some of these areas.

The study, which was released on Thursday, claimed that the US was the world leader in just the final seven technologies, including space launch systems, quantum computing, and vaccines.

The study focused on papers that were published in prestigious journals and were heavily cited by later studies, claiming that these studies had a “high impact” on research in important and developing technology areas.

The report stated: “Our research shows that China has created the foundations to position itself as the leading science and technology superpower, by creating a sometimes stunning lead in high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains.

“The critical technology tracker reveals that, for some technologies, all of the top 10 global research institutions are based in China and are producing nine times as many high-impact research papers as the second-ranked nation, which is typically the US.”

According to the study, the Chinese Academy of Sciences placed first or second in the majority of the 44 technologies tracked.

One-fifth of China’s high-impact papers are written by researchers who received postgraduate training in a Five-Eyes nation, the report said, referring to the intelligence-sharing alliance that consists of the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

As frequently stated by Xi Jinping and his predecessors, “China’s lead is the result of deliberate design and long-term policy planning.”

In his State of the Union speech last month, Joe Biden stated that the United States was “investing in American innovation, in sectors that will define the future, and that China’s government is set on dominating”.

However, according to the institute, China faces a significant danger of securing a monopoly in eight technologies, including the production of nanoscale materials, the use of hydrogen and ammonia as fuel, and synthetic biology.

The report said, China’s strides in nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles in 2021 should not have been a surprise to US intelligence agencies “because, according to our data analysis, over the past five years, China generated 48.49% of the world’s high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonics, and it hosts seven of the world’s top 10 research institutions in this topic area”.

The institute discovered “a large gap between China and the US, as the top two countries, and everyone else” across the board.

The report stated, “The data then shows a small, second-tier group of countries headed by India and the UK: other countries that frequently appear in this group—in many technological fields—include South Korea, Germany, Australia, Italy, and less frequently, Japan.

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