1. 1 “China’s Remarkable Progress in Science and Technology” Akito Arima Ｐ resident of Japan Science Foundation, Former Minister of Science and Technology Agency, Former Minister of Education, Culture and Sports

2. 2 List of Contents ・ The Transitional Change in the Budget for Research and Development (R&D) and the Number of Researchers ・ The State of Education - The State of Higher Education - The Results of High School Students Participating in International Scientific Olympiads - Overseas Education of Researchers ・ Research Papers - The Share of Published Papers - Ranking of Published Papers in International Comparison - Relationship in Joint Papers ・ Dreams and Hopes of the Youth ・ Science and Technology Cooperation in Asia

3. 3 The Transitional Change in the Budget for Research and Development (R&D) and the Number of Researchers

4. 4 The total budget for research and development in China has increased rapidly parallel to its economic development, exceeding 860 billion dollars in 2006. Though this is not quite as much as the US, Japan or the total of EU, it is more than that of Korea, France or Germany.

5. 5 China’s R&D budget ratio in relationship to its GDP is also on the increase. The Chinese government is planning to increase the present GDP ratio of 1.4 to more than 2.0 by 2010, and more than 2.5 by 2020.

6. 6 The number of Chinese researchers in 1990 was approximately the same as those in Japan, but by 2007, China has almost twice as many researchers as Japan with 1.224 million, equal to those of the USA or Europe in total.

7. 7 The rising success of the younger researchers in their forties and early fifties is obvious. For example, looking at the age distribution, 70 percent of the research institute directors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences are in their forties.

8. 8 The age distribution of the Presidents of each qualified university participating in the 211 Project also shows that almost 60 percent of them are in their late forties and early fifties.

9. 9 The State of Education

10. 10 The number of people who obtain doctorates in the scientific or engineering field in China has increased dramatically (approximately a 1.9 time increase for the period 2000 – 2004). By 2003, China surpassed Japan and the major European countries, becoming second only to the USA in this number.

11. 11 The number of Chinese students advancing to graduate schools has increased rapidly (approximately a quadruple increase for the period 2000 – 2007). By 2007, there were about 1.195million graduate students in China, about 4.5 times more than Japan’s 262 thousand.

12. 12 According to an analysis in 2007 among those who were still attending graduate school in China, about half of the students were majoring in the fields of science and engineering.

13. 13 By comparison, one can see that the Japanese graduate school students majoring in social sciences and science or engineering are both about 30 percent.

14. 14 Advancing to higher education has spread in China and the number of students who enter university or graduate school has dramatically increased (by approximately 2.6 times during the period of 2000 – 2007), amounting to 6.078 million students in 2007. On the other hand, the number of Japanese students advancing to higher education has been gradually decreasing since the late 1990’s. In 2007, the number was 813 thousand students, a mere one seventh of China’s number.

15. 15 The number of students attending schools in higher education in China has sharply increased (by 3.4tmes during the period of 2000 – 2007) amounting to 20.044 million, 6.6 times more than Japan.

16. 16 The number of students entering a four-year university has rapidly increased in China since the mid 1990’s (approximately 2.4 times during the period of 2000 – 2007). In 2007, the number of students totaled 2.821 million, which was 4.6 times that of Japan.

17. 17 The percentage of students entering a 4-year university in proportion to the total population is showing an increasing tendency (a 2.3 time increase during 2000 – 2007) at 0.21 percent by 2007. However, it is still about half of that of Japan.

18. 18 The number of students attending 4-year universities in China increased sharply from the mid 1990’s (by about 3 times during 2000 – 2007) amounting to 10.243 million in 2007, approximately 3.6 times as many as Japan.

19. 19 The percentage of students attending a 4-year university in proportion to the total population is showing an increasing tendency (a 3 times increase during 2000 - 2007) at 0.78 percent by 2007. However, it is still about one third of that of Japan.

20. 20 China exceeds the world in a variety of scientific olympiads for high school students. The Chinese students who participate in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and informatics, all do well and obtain many gold medals.

21. 21 The number of gold medals obtained by China in the scientific olympiads recently exceeds those of Japan, USA and Russia, constantly maintaining its leading position.

22. 22 In many cases, people who have studied abroad are appointed as the heads of major research institutes and universities in China. For example, 75 percent of the heads of the research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have studied abroad. Of them, 21 percent studied in the US.

23. 23 About 70 percent of all presidents of the qualified universities in the 211 Project have studied abroad, of which 23 percent have studied in the US. For comparison, about 32 percent of Presidents of Japanese national universities have studied abroad.

24. 24 Research Papers

25. 25 The number of research papers published by China has dramatically increased. China’s share of published papers were 3.6 percent in 2000, but by 2006, this has increased to 8.2 percent showing a rapid increase of 2.3 times, standing at the same level as Japan, UK and Germany.

26. 26 The share of Chinese papers of all scientific areas in the world is rising steadily. In the share of all scientific papers in the world, China has risen from 14th (for 1991 to 1995) to 6th place (for 2001 to 2005). Note: About the field analysis of the NISTEP: This was prepared by calculating and re-classifying the papers stored in the WoS Database, utilizing ESI ‘s (Essential Science Indicators) 22 areas of classification. (By journals. Refer to internet homepage http://www.in-cites.com/journal-list/index.html)

27. 27 China has risen from 18th (for 1991 to 1995) to 8th place (for 2001 to 2005) in the “Top 10 Percent Share of Papers”.

28. 28 China has also risen from 19th (during 1991 - 1995) to 9th place (during 2001 – 2005) in the citation indexing share of papers.

29. 29 The relationship between China and Japan in the area of joint papers has been enhanced and research cooperation between the two countries has strengthened. Comparing the period from 1991 to 1995 with 2001 to 2005, one can see that Japan has risen relatively as a partner for joint papers from China’s viewpoint. Especially in the field of material science, Japan is now the top collaborating partner in joint papers in this field, surpassing the US.

30. 30 On the other hand, from Japan’s viewpoint, as an international partner for joint papers, one can see that China has risen from 6th (during 1991 to 1995) to 2nd place (during 2001 to 2005) in all fields of science and technology. As for the material science field, Japan is 1st place as partner in China, and vice versa.

31. 31 Dreams and Hopes of the Youth

32. 32 According to the results of an international comparison survey conducted by the Japan Youth Research Institute, the percentage of high school students who replied that the 21st century will become a society with hope was only 35 percent for the Japanese, compared to 89 percent for the Chinese.

33. 33 From another international comparison conducted by the International Student Center, University of Tsukuba, 91 percent of Chinese junior high school students replied positively that they had large hopes for their future, while only 29 percent replied the same in Japan.

34. 34 Science and Technology Cooperation in Asia

35. 35 The necessity for a moderate science and technology alliance based in East Asia. Not just a few, but many recent researches in the leading science and technology fields require a huge amount of financial and human investment, which is getting more and more difficult to be covered by just one single country. To meet this situation, EU has advanced its scientific and technical cooperation with its various countries within the union, and is now beginning to form a scientific and technical corner in the world. Northern America is also another scientific and technical corner with the US at its core. Thus, it is only natural to bring up the necessity to form a base for research and development in Asia, otherwise difficult to establish in a single country, by developing scientific and technical cooperation, with East Asia at its core,

36. 36 For example, facilities could be shared in the following areas of research and development: Environmental technology (development of new energy resources, environmental conservation measures) High energy (Large Hadron Collider accelerating facilities, etc) Thermonuclear fusion Astronomy (high powered large telescope, etc) Space exploration etc.

37. 37 Thank You !