Transcript
LINDA JAKOBSON: I'm going to speak about China's technological ambitions. Like Richard mentioned this is broadly speaking the topic of a book I've been working on for about 2 years with five China-based specialists. These specialists have written the chapters about information technology, nanotech, biotech, and energy. It is a book about the kind of high-tech research which is being done at the moment in China. I myself have written the first chapter which provides an overview of science and technology generally speaking in China and especially the ambitious goals that the Chinese leaders have in this sphere.
About half the chapter is devoted to the challenges that China faces when it tries to fulfill these goals and it's these challenges and the political dimensions of these challenges that I'm going to focus on today in my talk.
I think for anyone who was watching the science and technology environment in 2006, it didn't come as a surprise when the government unveiled its 15-year plan. The Chinese government is adamant that China is to become one of the world's leading S&T nations by the middle of this century. And perhaps even more ambitiously, the government has said that the nation is to transform into an innovation-oriented society within 15 years.
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