Opinion | Top world scientists, laureates: China's scientific development yielding remarkable results
By Augustus K. Yeung
China needs to upgrade its education system to support the country's drive for technological self-reliance, as well as attract more international students, said President Xi-Jinping who has recently delivered the assessment at a study session of the Politburo, the Communist Party's top decision-making body, Xinhua reported.
Karolin Luger, a biochemistry professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in the United States and a winner of the 2023 World Laureates Association Prize in Life Science or Medicine, however, said she was very confident in China's scientific development, as its fundamental education is among the best in the world.
She added that the young generation is showing growing interest in science, and China has invested heavily in scientific research.
"I have a lot of confidence in China's scientific development – because, especially in my field, I've seen what people and labs here are publishing," she said on the sidelines of the sixth World Laureates Forum in Shanghai, "In terms of what kind of problems they're tackling, it's very impressive."
Note: The forum attracted hundreds of scientists from 25 countries and regions, including 27 Nobel laureates, for in-depth discussions on topics such as the life sciences, intelligent science and carbon neutrality.
"In the past 15 years, Chinese science has developed on a very steep curve," said Luger, who is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. "It was really astonishing to watch, especially in structural biology, the advances that this country has taken in pushing the boundaries of structural biology. Some seminal studies are coming out of Chinese labs right now."
Daniela Rhodes from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom, who shares the WLA Prize in Life Science or Medicine with Lugar and Timothy J. Richmond, a professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, agreed.
"In terms of top journal publication, China has overtaken the U.S., so overall obviously the investment in Chinese science is working," Rhodes said. "It already has shown results."
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that China spent 3.08 trillion yuan ($425 billion) on research and development last year, up 10.4 percent year-on-year.
China also climbed to 11th position in the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovations Index last year, having risen 23 places since 2012. It is the only country to have risen so consistently and rapidly in the rankings.
"China has made the decision to really invest heavily in science, and it's really beginning to pay off," Lugar said, adding that some of her friends had moved to work in China and she had learned about the country's scientific development environment from them.
"In the U.S., it is pretty hard to obtain funding for fundamental research," Lugar said. "If you do research that is paid for by taxpayers' money, people want to see a benefit to their lives. Structural biology is a technique that requires very expensive instrumentation."
Lugar has worked with many Chinese scientists in the past 25 years, including Xu Ruiming, dean of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Science and Technology of China.
She said she respected Chinese scientists' contribution to global biology research and was very hopeful – for the next generation of Chinese after making the trip to Shanghai for the WLA Forum.
"I'm actually even more encouraged and really impressed by the students that I have encountered in Shanghai," she said. "They were so enthusiastic to talk to us, and very pointed in their questions, and they would really corner us and ask important questions and talk about science."
Lugar invited two former team members from China to the WLA Prize awards ceremony on Monday. The team won the prize for its achievements published in 1997 about elucidating the structure of the nucleosome at the atomic level.
"They have done outstanding work in my lab, and now run successful labs continuing work on chromatin structure at the University of Hong Kong," she said. "They do their part to make the world a better place. I couldn't be prouder of them."
Lugar said she considered her main legacy to be the people she has trained and mentored. Out of about 70 graduate students and postgraduates she has trained, about 20 percent were Chinese.
"They usually have really good grades, because I think the school system in China honestly is probably better than in the U.S. all the way to high school," she said. "They have a very good math and STEM background." (Source: China Daily)
It is true that the Chinese students are versed in mathematics; a few of the Chinese students at the University of Toronto were outstanding. One was said to have cracked a "mathematics mystery" and he became an assistant professor of mathematics.
As for STEM background, it is China's emphasis. But I fear that it is done at the expense of China's English language education.
I have noticed that Chinese academics do not fare well in spoken English when delivering – whenever they took part in public forums, not to mention graduate students.
Besides, language learning and development is important as it can help to bridge the cultural gap and help the Chinese – both professors and students – to tell "the China story" as President Xi Jinping has been trying to emphasize.
Being outstanding in scientific research and development is good, but a neglect of the paramount importance of the English language can compromise the nation's ability to the development of soft power, which is important to China, especially its diplomats – in a divided world bent on smearing this nation which is experiencing an unparallel rise.
An emphasis on English language development can also speed up the prosperity of the Greater Bay Area (GBA), which is strategically vital – if China intends to integrate with ASEAN.
As China is seriously considering a shift to emphasize quality over quantity, it is equally important not to neglect English and advancement in social sciences.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
To contact the writer, please direct email: AugustusKYeung@ymail.com
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