COLUMNIST: CONG CAO
Notes on China
Cong Cao is a senior research associate with the Neil D. Levin Graduate Institute of International Relations and Commerce at the State University of New York. He received his PhD in sociology from Columbia University in 1997 and has worked at the University of Oregon and the National University of Singapore. Dr. Cao is interested in the social studies of science and technology with a focus on China.
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February 26, 2010New York, NY, United States — In a bizarre development, the alleged online attacks on Google are said to have been launched from a vocational school in China, as reported by the New York Times. Anyone knowledgeable about education in China cannot help laughing at these ignorant “experts” and their message carrier, the New York Times.
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February 16, 2010New York, NY, United States — The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan still dominate the global system of technology and innovation, but it is worth noting that new players – from the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China, to Israel, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan also have come into sight.
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February 09, 2010New York, NY, United States — Yale University President Richard Levin has predicted that China’s elite universities could be among the world’s top 10 in 25 years, rivaling Oxford, Cambridge and the Ivy League institutions. But to attain this, Chinese students must be allowed independent thinking and freedom of expression.
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February 02, 2010New York, NY, United States — In late 2009 Thomson Reuters issued a report claiming that in terms of scientific publications China will replace the United States as the leader in around 2017 if the current momentum is sustained. Unfortunately, the quality of scientific work has not kept pace with its quantity.
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January 26, 2010New York, NY, United States — China’s goal of becoming an innovation-oriented nation by 2020 will be significantly derailed if the nation does not make serious effort to eradicate misconduct in science. According to conservative estimates, one-third of Chinese researchers have engaged in some sort of problematic practice.
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January 19, 2010New York, NY, United States — The news that Google may pull out of China has surprised many, but not me. Aside from the political implications that are still evolving, Google’s China saga could represent a big setback for foreign investment in China, whose business environment is not as friendly to foreign companies as it appears.
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January 12, 2010New York, NY, United States — China describes its sociopolitical model as “socialism with Chinese characteristics.” This means that China is a “special color,” different from others. Last week a member of China’s elite questioned where China’s “special color” would come from if there were no primary colors – or universal values.
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January 05, 2010New York, NY, United States — Several persons on the faculty of Jinggangshan University, a Chinese university in the interior province of Jiangxi, must have had a miserable New Year’s Day. Their publications were found to be fraudulent and they were fired from their jobs. This is just the tip of the iceberg of academic fraud in China.
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December 29, 2009New York, NY, United States — China holds many No. 1 positions in the world. As of 2009, it has foreign exchange reserves of more than US$2.1 trillion; its foreign trade reached US$2.2 trillion; its contribution to the growth of the global economy reached 19.2 percent. In some areas, however, being No. 1 can cause problems.
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December 22, 2009New York, NY, United States — Among memorable events in China in 2009, Internet-related events will stand out. China’s 350 million netizens won several victories by challenging the authoritarian regime by using the Internet at a time when regular channels were inaccessible. What’s more, they prevailed over the pervasive state.
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December 15, 2009New York, NY, United States — Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of Chinese students and professionals who study abroad heading home instead of remaining overseas as their predecessors usually did. But returnees tend to be those with the least stable situations overseas rather than the most experienced professionals.
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December 08, 2009New York, NY, United States — As world leaders gather in Copenhagen to battle climate change the focus will be on China and the United States, the two largest polluters in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. China has an urgent need for critical technology; if the United States provides it both sides will benefit.
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December 01, 2009London, England — “Pessoptimism,” a confusing or contradictory mindset or feeling toward both positive and negative realities, accurately conveys China’s dilemma on the international stage and in many other aspects of life. For example, China’s economic growth is impressive, but comes at a great cost to the environment.
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November 24, 2009New York, NY, United States — During his meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao requested that the United States ease its restrictions on high-tech exports to China. U.S. controls are causing a huge loss to U.S. companies and an enlarging deficit with China in high-tech trade.
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November 17, 2009New York, NY, United States — Qian Xuesen, known as H.S. Tsien in the West, the “father of China’s space program,” passed away on Oct. 31 shortly before his 98th birthday. Chinese leaders all went to pay their final respects to Qian, who helped advance China’s strategic weapons but also stirred controversy through his actions and views.
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November 03, 2009New York, NY, United States — Last week China’s Education Minister Zhou Ji was deprived of his position. Zhou has been criticized for incompetence, underperformance and for the damage that has been done to China’s higher education in transforming it to a mass education system. But will the new minister be any better?
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October 27, 2009New York, NY, United States — On Sept. 17 Dr. Tu Xuxin jumped from the eleventh floor of a building on the Zhejiang University campus in Hangzhou, China, leaving behind a wife and a daughter less than three years old. This happened only three months after he returned from the United States. Why?
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October 20, 2009New York, NY, United States — Now is the time to capture Internet opportunities in China, before it is too late, Dr. Lee Kai-fu told a recent gathering of Chinese students at Columbia University in New York City.
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October 14, 2009New York, NY, United States — Chen Ning Yang, a Chinese-American Nobel laureate in physics said in 2000 that Nobel prize-winning achievement will emerge from China in 20 years time. This is far fetched as China has not established a tradition of research in science and the country’s education system is not on par with Western standards.
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October 06, 2009New York, NY, United States — The year 2009 probably will be remembered as one of the worst in terms of higher education financing in the United States. In contrast, institutions of higher education in China have seen their financial situation improving despite the crisis, especially thanks to government funding for research.
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September 29, 2009New York, NY, United States — Zhu Qingshi, former president of the University of Science and Technology of China, was appointed founding president of the South University of Science and Technology in the southern municipality of Shenzhen. This new institution gives Zhu the chance to pursue high standards of academic freedom and excellence.
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September 22, 2009New York, NY, United States — According to Lux Research, a consultancy of emerging technologies, nanotechnology has the potential to generate a US$2.6 trillion market by 2014. However, nanoparticles could pose a serious risk to lungs, as a recent study by Chinese toxicologists suggests.
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September 15, 2009Philadelphia, PA, United States — Since the 1990s China has increased its expenditure on research and development at a rate nearly twice that of overall economic growth. Statistics show that enterprises account for close to three-quarters of China’s R&D expenditures; but in reality they have allocated few financial resources to innovative R&D.
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September 08, 2009Beijing, China — Nanotechnology, at the global scientific and technological frontier, is a field in which China seems to not lag far behind the West. China’s nanotechnology research output is among the top in the world by the number of publications. Is China really leapfrogging ahead to take the lead in this field?
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September 01, 2009Beijing, China — It is well known that Internet access is not unrestricted in China. But who would expect that New Threads, an overseas Chinese-language website, would be among the inaccessible sites? It is not anti-government, pornographic, or related to “sensitive” topics. It simply reveals academic misconduct.
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August 25, 2009New York, NY, United States — Early in August, when China’s National Bureau of Statistics released the gross domestic product statistics for the first half of 2009, a discrepancy of 9.9 percent was found between the national GDP and the sum of the GDPs reported by the provinces. This points to a problem in the country’s statistical system.
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August 18, 2009New York, NY, United States — In his recent contribution to “China Leadership Monitor,” Barry Naughton, a renowned expert on China’s political economy, points out that two Chinese government agencies – the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology – “are amassing power.”
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August 11, 2009New York, NY, United States — The Chinese Communist Party has become a headhunter. The party has initiated a program called the “Thousand Talents Program” aimed at recruiting Chinese expatriates with impeccable credentials from overseas. But to succeed, the program will have to change the country’s academic and research environment.
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August 04, 2009New York, NY, United States — As China has become the world’s most attractive nation for foreign direct investment, multinational companies that do business there have encountered a number of unspoken rules they must follow. One of these is the bribery of Chinese officials.
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July 28, 2009New York, NY, United States — The number of Chinese Internet users has reached 338 million. Of these, 320 million access the Internet via computer and 155 million go online via mobile devices. China has linked 90 percent of its villages to the Internet. All these are unequivocally number one in the world, with worldwide implications.
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July 21, 2009New York, NY, United States — U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, both Chinese-American, both stressed their roots during visits to China last week, apparently in an attempt to establish rapport with China. It is unprecedented that the United States has two Chinese-American Cabinet secretaries.
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July 14, 2009New York, NY, United States — As of July 1, 68 percent of China’s 6.1 million 2009 college graduates were employed, according to the Ministry of Education. In contrast, a private company says only 40 percent of graduates with a bachelor’s degree are employed. What do the different statistics convey?
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July 07, 2009New York, NY, United States — A friend recently moved from a top research institution in Beijing to a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory in Washington state. Many scholars who return to China after studying abroad find their opinions or criticisms viewed as dissent. This drives them to take their expertise elsewhere, where it is respected.
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June 30, 2009New York, NY, United States — Yicheng was a little-known Chinese city of half a million in Hubei province as recently as a week ago. It was the appointment of Zhou Senfeng as its mayor that not only brought publicity to the city, but also made the new mayor a national figure – a controversial one.
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June 23, 2009New York, NY, United States — Google is in trouble in China. Its Chinese-language website has been found to have links to pornographic and vulgar content. It has been ordered to stop foreign searches and the automatic keywords feature, and threatened with further punishment if the problem persists.
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June 16, 2009New York, NY, United States — That the Chinese government intends to construct a “dam” to block the flood of inappropriate content from the Internet has encountered a flood of complaints. The government says it aims to protect children, but Chinese netizens are mainly adults who very much dislike being controlled by the government.
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June 09, 2009New York, NY, United States — On June 2, one day after General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection, Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, a little-known Chinese company in the hinterland Sichuan province, announced it would buy Hummer from GM. While this may be music to the ears of GM, the Chinese move doesn’t make sense.
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June 02, 2009Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — The visit of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to China has set a new agenda for U.S.-China relations – cooperation on climate change. A strong critic of China’s human rights, this time Pelosi mentioned the issue only in the context of climate change and a healthy environment.
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May 26, 2009New York, NY, United States — British physicist C. P. Snow described the polarization between the cultures represented by scientific and literal intellectuals. Most intellectuals know only one culture, so may wrongly interpret modern society, inappropriately describe the past, and incorrectly forecast the future.
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May 19, 2009New York, NY, United States — While the impact of swine flu seems to be winding down globally, China has heightened its attention. Chinese media have extensively covered the outbreak, while implying it is being ignored elsewhere. Compared to the global reaction to the SARS outbreak in China, they feel double standards are at play.
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May 12, 2009New York, NY, United States — China has warned its officials that amid an economic crisis they should not set a bad example by using taxpayers’ money to go abroad. For years, it has been an open secret in China that officials go overseas for purposes beyond study, training and attracting foreign investment.
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May 05, 2009New York, NY, United States — The publication of a Chinese translation of “The Man Who Loved China,” by Simon Winchester, is worth noting. The biography reveals details of scientist Joseph Needham’s life and refutes some beliefs widely held in China. Unlike many foreign-language books, it has been translated intact.
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April 28, 2009New York, NY, United States — The world is on high alert as swine flu has caused fatalities in Mexico and is spreading, with the potential to become a global pandemic. However, there is no panic because people know what symptoms to look for and how to fight the disease. Can China also overcome the mentality of covering up such epidemics?
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April 21, 2009New York, NY, United States — Monday’s announcement that Oracle Corp. is acquiring Sun Microsystems Inc. is surprising but understandable. The unlikely move by Oracle, a software company, to buy the hardware-focused Sun seems to reverse the trend. But it will surely make both companies stronger.
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April 14, 2009New York, NY, United States — For three months in a row China has sold more cars than the United States. The country’s March new car sales reached a record of 1.11 million, compared to the United States’ 858,000, making China the world’s largest automobile market, at least for the time being.
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April 07, 2009New York, NU, United States — The China Securities Regulatory Commission has finally issued a temporary regulation on the administration of initial public offerings of stocks by growth enterprises. A second-board stock exchange will help smaller enterprises raise funds; so far only large companies have had this opportunity.
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March 31, 2009New York, NY, United States — An agreement between Qinghua University in Beijing and Microsoft, which requires that all on-campus computers used by students and faculty be installed with genuine versions of the Microsoft Vista operating system and Office 2007 suite, has caused an outcry led by a top Chinese computer scientist.
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March 24, 2009New York, NY, United States — A recent case of research misconduct involving several scientists at Zhejiang University, a leading Chinese university and a prestigious member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, has drawn the attention of the international scientific community. Unfortunately such cases are not rare.
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March 17, 2009Shanghai, China — This columnist predicted that China may take advantage of the global financial crisis to acquire valuable but deeply discounted assets globally. Indeed, China has acquired overseas natural resources, and now is ready to shop overseas for small- and medium-sized enterprises, especially high-tech ones.
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March 10, 2009Dalian, China — Today China is generally more open than it was 30 years ago when the reform and open-door initiative was launched – except in the fields of science and higher education. Missing is the physical presence of foreigners in China’s institutions of scientific research and higher education.
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February 24, 2009New York, NY, United States — Intel recently announced that it will move one of its assembly and test facilities from Shanghai to the inland Chinese city of Chengdu, where labor costs are 30 to 50 percent lower. Amid the global financial crisis this makes sense, and is a welcome signal to China’s second-tier provinces and cities.
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February 17, 2009New York, NY, United States — Chinese leaders seem to like the “birdcage” metaphor. Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping’s economic lieutenant, said China’s market reforms should operate “like a bird in a cage.” Now the leader of Guangdong province is advocating “emptying the cage for new birds to come in,” or changing the economic development model.
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February 10, 2009New York, NY, United States — Recently there have been discussions on China becoming a patent powerhouse. For example, Thompson Reuters Scientific has predicted that China could surpass Japan in 2010 and the United States in 2011 in patent applications. But the rise in patent applications does not make China an innovative nation.
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February 05, 2009New York, NY, United States — International cooperation in science and technology has long been central to China’s development. In fact, international cooperation in science and technology has become part of China’s overall foreign policy strategy.
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January 27, 2009New York, NY, United States — The global financial turmoil that has led to tens of thousands of job losses in financial services has provided China with a golden opportunity to attract its overseas professionals to return. However, the media coverage of China’s global talent hunt has left me feeling sick.
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January 20, 2009New York, NY, United States — “Shanzhai,” a term that recently has gained popularity in China, refers to anything that is unregulated, unsanctioned or unofficial, ranging from fake and knockoff consumer electronic products to persons who mimic celebrities and comedies that parody well-known films.
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January 13, 2009New York, NY, United States — Recently, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, China’s de facto leadership, issued a guideline pledging to attract back to China some 1,000 people with high-end skills residing overseas in the next five to ten years. This shows the leadership realizes that China lacks high-level talent.
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January 06, 2009New York, NY, United States — In 1984, in a rented room and with a borrowed US$25,000, Chinese engineer Liu Chuanzhi and 10 colleagues started a computer business which later became Lenovo. In 2008 Lenovo’s revenue reached US$16.8 billion. This was a remarkable achievement, but Lenovo may have reached the end of its business strategy.
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December 30, 2008New York, NY, United States — The nomination of Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for the position of energy secretary is to be applauded. Chu will be the first professional scientist to run the Department of Energy. He will also help encourage U.S.-China cooperation on global warming.
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December 16, 2008New York, NY, United States — China is not immune from the global economic crisis. It has shown no interest in lending its support to crippled Western financial institutions, but that doesn’t mean China will stand on the sidelines as other opportunities knock. Detroit could represent a windfall for the Chinese.
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December 09, 2008New York, NY, United States — Last week a delegation from China visited NASA, signaling closer cooperation between the United States and China in science and technology. It remains to be seen if U.S. fears and suspicions can be overcome to allow the two sides to cooperate substantially.
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December 02, 2008New York, NY, United States — While the China issue was not at the forefront during the recent U.S. presidential election, there is no doubt that these two countries – the largest developed and developing economies – have many shared interests, especially concerning cooperation in the areas of science and technology.
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November 25, 2008New York, NY, United States — In recent weeks, several leading Chinese universities changed their presidents. They were not selected, but appointed by the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council. Presidents are rotated from one school to another as a form of promotion – but this goes against the schools’ quest for excellence.
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November 18, 2008New York, NY, United States — As a global economic crisis looms, the world turns its eyes to China. Responses have been positive toward China’s announcement of a US$586 billion economic stimulus package. The money will fund infrastructure, aid poor farmers and subsidize exports – and most importantly, fund science and education.
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November 11, 2008New York, NY, United States — With its “black screen” tactics on computers using fake software in China, Microsoft has angered the Chinese, who are accusing the company of abusing its software monopoly. But Microsoft has encountered relatively little trouble in China, thanks to its excellent relationships with top figures.
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November 04, 2008New York, NY, United States — China’s open-door policy of the 1970s stirred an unprecedented “overseas study fever.” It is estimated that, as of 2007, some 1.21 million Chinese have gone abroad as students and scholars. However, only a quarter returned upon finishing their overseas experience, constituting a “brain drain” for China.
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October 28, 2008New York, NY, United States — Last week, the screens suddenly went black on an unknown number of computers in China, as Microsoft sent a warning to users of pirated copies of its products – the Windows operating system and Office suite. However, Microsoft’s anti-piracy crackdown has raised a frenzy of opposition against the company.
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October 21, 2008New York, NY, United States — China’s leaders have become better educated. Although Mao Zedong was an “intellectual” by the standard of his time, China’s early leaders were mainly revolutionaries. Third-generation leaders were technocrats, but the academic credentials of China’s current leaders are among the highest in the world.
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October 14, 2008New York, NY, United States — Every year in October, one week always generates an indescribable anxiety in China. This is the week when the Nobel Prizes for the year are announced. This year was no exception as, once again, no prizes were awarded to any mainland Chinese.
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October 07, 2008New York, NY, United States — Chinese victims of the baby formula scandal have taken their anger out on the bureaucrats in charge of the nation’s public health affairs, including Minister of Health Chen Zhu. It is a pity that he has to deal with this problem, which is not of his making and out of his range.
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September 30, 2008New York, NY, United States — The contamination of baby formula has caused political turmoil in China. Company executives have lost their jobs, government officials have resigned and parents are fearful for their babies. But it did not have to be like this; the turmoil is all due to an attempted cover-up.
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September 23, 2008New York, NY, United States — China will fly a large “made-in-China” aircraft by 2020, according to a development plan announced in 2006. With the formation of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, the nation has already taken the first step toward developing and manufacturing such aircraft.
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September 22, 2008New York, NY, United States — On Sept. 25 China will launch the manned spacecraft Shenzhou-7, with an astronaut who will walk in space. It is a giant leap for China’s space program, led by aerodynamicist Qian Xuesen, who returned to China in 1955 after being persecuted by McCarthyites in the United States.
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September 10, 2008New York, NY, United States — Has China spent enough on science and education is a fair question to ask given the billion-dollar price tag it paid for staging the Olympics. To put its “gold medal strategy,” which was pricey, in comparative perspective, one has to look at government spending on public goods like science and education.
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September 02, 2008New York, NY, United States — The Internet has brought us an era of relentless, 24-hour scrutiny in which everyone is constantly searching for information on someone else. This has gone to the extreme in China, where any unacceptable behavior could launch a search to dig out the offending person’s personal information.
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August 27, 2008New York, NY, United States — China’s Anti-Trust Law, enacted on Aug. 1, is expected to change China’s competition landscape. The law will keep a close eye on multinational corporations with operations in China. Many of them have occupied dominant positions in the Chinese market and are thereby perceived negatively.
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August 12, 2008New York, NY, United States — As the host of the Olympic Games, the Middle Kingdom has become the center of the world again. There is little doubt that splendid sports venues are showing off China’s first-rate, technologically sophisticated infrastructure. However, how many at the gathering have noticed that something is missing?
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August 05, 2008New York, NY, United States — As the Olympics are to be staged in China later this week, international media are focusing on China’s challenge to the world and the challenges it faces. While China has achieved great progress, its current challenge lies in converting the emphasis on quantitative expansion to a focus on qualitative growth.
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July 28, 2008New York, NY, United States — The late scientist Joseph Needham is well known in China because of his monumental project, “Science and Civilization in China.” This biochemist-turned-historian of Chinese science has helped the world to have a better understanding of the marvelous history of science, technology, and medicine in China.
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July 17, 2008New York, NY, United States — According to BDA, a Beijing-based consultancy, China has overtaken the United States as the world’s number one in terms of the number of Internet users. The Internet has changed and will continue to change various aspects of Chinese life profoundly – including revealing misconduct and fraud.
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July 11, 2008New York, NY, United States — The 2008 Summer Olympics are fast approaching, but visitors to Beijing can hardly sense the atmosphere of excitement. Plane tickets to China are unsold; hotels are not full. This is related to China’s tightened visa policy, which reflects a lack of confidence that the country can handle all challenges.
