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In 1900, China had no modern science and technology. At that time, less than
10 people throughout China had learned calculus. In 2001, "Shenzhou II," China's
unmanned spaceship was successfully launched and retrieved. The development
speed of China's science and technology in the previous 100 years was regarded
as unprecedented. By early 21st century, China has remarkably narrowed the gap
in general between its development level of high technology and the world's
advanced level. Over 60 percent of China's technologies have approached the
international advanced level, and 25 percent have greatly progressed, though
still lagging behind the international advanced level.
 Most of the changes took place in the latter half of the last century. The
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was established in November 1949, and in the
1960s, the number of the nation's scientific research institutions increased to
over 1,600, covering a wide range of major disciplinary and technological fields
and employing some 200,000 professionals. After experiencing the 10-year turmoil
of the "cultural revolution," China's political, economic, cultural, and
scientific and technological developments entered a recovery period. The
government re-formulated the outline of the national science and technology
development plan. The number of important scientific and technological
achievements in 1979 alone exceeded the total number of the previous 10 years.
Since then, China's scientific and technological development had entered a new
period attracting worldwide attention. By the end of 2001, there were a total of
28.87 million professional technical personnel working in state-owned
enterprises and institutions in China, of whom 930,000 were engaged in research
and development activities, including 700,000 scientists and engineers.
 Meanwhile, the scientific quality of the general public has been increasing.
According to an authoritative survey conducted by the State Statistics Bureau
and the China Association for Science and Technology using the international
index system and method for testing the scientific quality of the public, in the
past five years the proportion of Chinese public with basic scientific quality
has annually increased by 0.24 percentage point, from 0.2 percent in 1996 to 1.4
percent in 2001.
In 2001, the government decided to focus its science and technology work on
promoting the upgrading of traditional industries, propelling high-tech
researches, strengthening basic researches, deepening reform in the system of
science and technology, and building a state system of innovation. According to
a state plan, by 2005, the R&D funds in the whole society will account for
over 1.5 percent of the GDP, the R & D funds in enterprises will exceed 50
percent of that in the whole society, the R & D funds in new- and
high-technology enterprises will be over five percent of their yearly sales
income, and there will be as many as 900,000 scientists and engineers engaged in
R & D. Meanwhile, the basic construction of science and technology will be
gradually improved. By 2005, China will have a number of world-class scientific
research bases, with both the level of industrial technology and its
international competitiveness greatly increased. Basic researches and strategic
high-tech researches will have made breakthroughs, providing scientific and
technological support for the harmonious development of population, resources
and environment.
From China -- Past and
Present
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