Chinese S&T Community Ready for WTO
Xu Guanhua, Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology recently expressed that China would make three major strategies on talents, patents and technical standards powerful measures for its accession to WTO.
China will adopt the so-called brain gain strategy to attract more talented people form abroad. Surrounding the requirements of major projects, China will enhance its absorption of high caliber talents from overseas sources including high caliber talents in group so as to stimulate brain gain wave of high caliber people returning from abroad and establishing businesses in their motherland. China will reform its S&T evaluation system and request major national S&T programs and projects to make discovering, training and retaining young talented people, especially high caliber talents the major indicators for achievements evaluation. In the meanwhile, China will practice topic oriented research system, increasing the proportion of funds used on personnel in R&D budget, exploring incentive mechanism in different forms such as future stocks of high tech businesses and taking full advantage of innovation values of S&T personnel and associated management people.
China will make patent an important means to toughen its competitiveness through strengthening the management of intellectual properties, especially through establishing incentive mechanism promoting S&T innovations through IP system, taking full advantage of the guiding role of intellectual properties in S&T management, increasing the portion of intellectual properties in S&T evaluation system, analyzing the status of intellectual properties both at home and abroad before establishing an S&T project at national level, creating dedicated funds to support both domestic and international invention patents applied by Chinese enterprises or individuals, expediting patent approval for inventions originated from major S&T projects so as to make these inventions market competitiveness elements in a timely manner.
China will establish and improve the technical standards system to protect its national technical standard system in its own interest while also in line with the WTO’s rules. It will restructure the existing institutions, establish national standardized technology research institutions and the corresponding expertise; increase its input in providing priority support for industrial standards studies for high tech industries such as information, biology, electric autos and etc.; strengthen studies of standards and measuring means for its advantageous fields such as Chinese traditional medicine and Chinese information processing; take an active part in the formulation of international standards system and associated activities; and strive for its more influence in the field of international standardization process.
China’s Priorities for Social S&T Activities
On December 21st, 2001, Li Xueyong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology said at the National Working Conference on Social Development and Science and Technology that in the next 5 years China’s social S&T activities would focus on the implementation of sustainable development strategies, with addressing major issues relating to population, resources, environment and social development as the starting points, the improvement of people’s life as the main theme and S&T and system innovations as the momentum, and promoting the coordinated development of economy, society and environment on a full-fledged basis.
Li said that taking into account the current status of China’s economic and social development, China’s social S&T activities will, during the period from 2001-2005, focus on 6 areas including studies of development strategies, breakthroughs in key technologies, experiments and demonstration, capacity building, promoting the development of relevant industries, and creating new systems. Priorities will be given to 9 fields as follows:
* All-round improvement of population quality and promoting the development of medical industry; improving the technical level of family planning, birth and associated education; decreasing occurrence and mortality of major and common diseases and improving the level of diseases prevention and control and survival quality; developing proprietary modern Chinese traditional medicines of high tech contents; establishing R&D system for innovative drugs and associated industrialization; upgrading industrial process of medical instruments manufacturing; gradually creating and improving the technical platform and innovative system related to functional genome and biochips, and finding their applications in the development of new biotech products and major diseases’ examination and treatment.
* Improving energy efficiency and ensuring the security of the nation’s strategic resources. Focuses will be placed on the protection and utilization of water, oil, gas, solid mineral and marine resources, so as to improve the level of protection and utilization of the nation’s resources.
* Strengthening pollution control, integrated control of vulnerable ecological environment and improving environmental quality.
* Strengthening studies on natural disasters’monitoring and prediction techniques and improving the capacity for alleviating natural disasters. Aiming at major natural disasters such as earthquakes, geological, meteorological and marine disasters, priorities will be given to the development of new disaster monitoring techniques and associated instruments and equipment, strengthening the application of high technologies in disasters monitoring; developing new generation forecasting techniques and improving the accuracy and time efficiency of natural disasters prediction; developing series rescue techniques and equipment; and developing and establishing integrated technical system for risks assessment;
* Strengthening studies on major accidents control and major criminal cases detecting techniques, assuring social and public security. Developing processes for evaluating security and risks of urban areas and infrastructures, establishing urban and industrial security planning and associated technical standard system in line with international standards; developing control techniques against fires and accidents of special structures, detecting and control techniques for major dangerous sources, and control techniques for major potential disasters.
* Strengthening the development of key technologies related to urban construction, improving the planning and construction level of small township and people’s living environment.
* Strengthening studies on cultural relics protection and sports related S&T activities, promoting the development of culture and sports causes. Developing protection techniques for fiber and lacquer based cultural relics, ancient bronze and murals and rescuing techniques for protecting major cultural relics under natural condition; aiming at implementing Olympic Game related S&T activities, inter-disciplinary collaboration shall be organized to address key technologies, especially R&D of integrated techniques for improving players physical conditions.
* Promoting strategic studies and improving the scientific level of government decision making process. Conducting forefront and strategic studies on major issues surrounding China’s sustainable development in the next two decades such as population, resources and environment.
* Continue activities of rejuvenating cities with science and technology and construction of experimental parks for sustainable development.
China’s 12 Major R&D Projects
Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology will kick off the implementation of 12 major projects addressing key technologies R&D and associated industrialization demonstration in the new year so as to improve China’s international competitiveness in the field. As a result, China is planning to invest RMB 5 billion and more in the said 12 major R&D projects during the 10th Five-Year Plan period.
The said 12 major R&D projects cover super large integrated circuits and software, information security and e-administrative affairs and banking and electric autos. In the field of information technology, efforts will be made to achieve a fundamental change of the situation that China’s information industry has no its own core and associated core technologies are basically monopolized by foreign companies, with the development of new concept central processor, network computers and software platform as the breaking point; make China’s IC design and manufacturing among the world advanced in the next 5 to 10 years, with focus on the breakthrough in system core technology and key equipment for IC manufacturing; construct unified safe e-administrative and banking platforms and establish safe infrastructure system in line with the national information process while creating a number of corresponding technical industries. In the field of biomedicine, achieve a number of patents of major commercial values in the R&D of functional genes and biochips, ensuring the room for the development of China’s biotech industries; change China’s passive stand in lacking in proprietary medicines through strengthening innovative drug studies and promoting the modernization process of traditional medicine. In the field of transportation, strive for major technical breakthroughs and associated industrialization in a number of areas such as electric autos.
China Opens its Major S&T Programs
As disclosed recently by Xu Guanhua, Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China will gradually open its major national S&T programs such as National 863 Program and National 973 Program, for the purpose of expanding China’s opening and cooperation with international communities in the field of science and technology, raising its international cooperation level. At present China is considering to make its 863 and 973 programs under collaboration with S&T framework of the European Union, aiming at the organic combination of China’s major S&T programs with inter-governmental S&T cooperation in the world, as will effectively stimulate China’s S&T development.
China will be an active part of major international S&T cooperation projects with priorities on supporting and participating in multilateral S&T cooperation, encouraging and supporting more Chinese scientists to dance on the major international S&T arena, exploring joint construction of R&D bases with foreign research institutions so as to raise the visibility of China’s S&T community in the world. In the meanwhile, China will create more channels and support for international cooperation to stimulate its S&T development in different lines and at local levels through its S&T representative offices in 60 and odd countries and regions.
Absorbing More High Caliber Talents
Zhang Xuezhong, Minister of the Ministry of Personnel has pointed out recently that China will further intensify training and absorption of high caliber special talents with priorities on training of high caliber talents in urgent need, accelerating the construction of special technical talents contingent. Major measures to achieve the said goals are as follows:
1) Encourage the growth of post-doctorate based research team. Universities, research institutes, and large enterprises who are authorized to produce high caliber talents in dire need shall, under the precondition of having the capacity and ensuring the quality, establish post doctorate station if they have not done so or expand the enrollment on an appropriate basis; update the approval methods on the establishment of post doctorate mobile station and working station, simplifying approval procedures and removing the restrictions on enrollment of post doctorate students on institutions' own resources.
2) Improve and perfect the management of experts training. The selection of candidates for "Million and Ten Million Talents Project for New Century", special experts enjoying governmental subsidies and outstanding young and middle-aged experts shall be made surrounding the production of high caliber talents. Explore new approaches and methods for training of high caliber talents for non state-owned enterprises regardless of their capacity and ownership. Establish high caliber talents database at national and provincial level and expert liaison working system in different forms, further encouraging experts' positive roles in turning out high caliber talents.
3) Intensify the absorption of high caliber talents. By taking advantage of the fine opportunity that more and more overseas Chinese students prefer establishing their own businesses in China, take effective and practical measures to encourage and absorb overseas Chinese students and other talented people to create their businesses in China. Work hard to construct more pioneering parks for returned overseas Chinese students, taking advantage of the role played by these parks in absorbing more overseas Chinese students and developing high-tech industries.
More Results from Qinghai-Tibetan Survey
Being part of the geological surveys over China's territories of 9.6 million km2, the survey targeted on the ‘blank area’ of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau has resulted in a series of major discoveries on mineral resources, archeological and basic geologic facts.
In the course of survey, magnetic iron rich mines of a full iron content as high as 54%-66% were found with a preliminarily estimated reserve of 4.5 million tons.
In addition, a great number of geological bodies, tectonic zones and paleobiological fossils were discovered such as eclogite zone in Arjin fold belt, east-west fold belt on Kunlun Mountain and mixed ophiolite belt over the extensive twists of Yaluzangpu River. These new discoveries will help scientists to improve their understanding of the spatial and temporal evolution and determination of strata in the course of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau development. Meanwhile, scientists have collected huge amount of first-hand data on the plateau elevation process and its possible impacts on climate and environmental changes which constituted systematic and detailed basic geological data for China’s west section’s infrastructures construction and major national construction projects.
In the field of archaeology, numerous traces of palaeoanthropological activities such as burning ashes have been spotted and stoneware, boneware and pottery collected. These discoveries are of major importance to the study of palaeoanthropological activities in the region. Geologists have made in-depth studies of the major section of the earlier third Cambrian age over Tibetan Nielamu region, the only sea phase in the world, and discovered ichthyosaur fossils and fossils embedded strata, which provided important new evidences for understanding the evolution history of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Genetic Technique Enriches Rape Seeds
Chen Jinqing, a research fellow with Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Agriculture has for the first time in the world proposed the technical line for improving the oil content of rape seeds by taking advantage of conversed PEP gene in light of photosynthesis products distribution. The super new rape series bred out with conversed PEP technique have recorded an oil content as high as 52.82%, an indicator the highest so far proven internationally.
Starting from 1995, Chen Jinqing constructed conversed PEP genes and introduced them into rape genome through the medium of stalk bacteria. As a result, he obtained a number of rape species with conversed PEP genes, registered oil content as high as 47.4% for Super Oil I and 52.82% for Super Oil II, both 25% higher than that of the acceptor species.
Major Progress in China's Tokamak
The physicists and engineers with HT-7 Tokamak Team of the Institute of Plasma Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences had achieved eye-catching findings in their winter experiments by the end of 2001, which sat their HT-7 superconductivity studies in the frontier of the world magnetically confined nuclear fusion and their device one of the two experimental units in the world conducting plasma physics studies under high parameter conditions.
The said results are: realization of repeatable plasma discharging under high electronic temperature of 5 million degrees with a central density of above 1.0×1019/m3 for as long as 20 seconds, and realization of plasma discharging under high electronic temperature of 10 million degrees with a central density of above 1.0×1019/m3 for 10 seconds and longer, which made their high parameter quasi-stable plasma the second one in the world recording the discharging length larger than 1000 times energy confinement; under the coordinated effect of plasma Bern's waves and low noises, they realize an electric pulse length larger than 100 times energy confinement and highly confined stable operation under an electronic temperature at 20 million degrees with the highest temperature exceeding 30 million degrees.
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