China leads in 37 items, and the United States leads in the remaining 7 items

On March 2, the website of the Swiss newspaper New Zurich published an article by Patrick Thule and Matthias Sander, entitled "Has the West lost in the major technical competition against China?". The full text is extracted as follows:

The world economy seems to be increasingly divided into two camps. Under such circumstances, who can control key technologies becomes increasingly important. After all, from energy to military, computer chips and artificial intelligence are the basis of countless applications. The competition between the Amerika Serikat and China for the leading power is particularly fierce, but it is difficult to say who is in the leading position.

Now, the Australian Institute of Strategic Policy wants to investigate more clearly, and its conclusion sounds alarming: "Western democracies are losing the global technological competition around academic and research, and are losing the ability to attract the world's top talents."

From high-tech materials and radio communications, to batteries and quantum computers, to aircraft engines and unmanned aerial vehicles, the Australian Institute of Strategic Policy has investigated 44 technologies. China leads in 37 of these technological fields, while the United States leads in other fields.

How is technology leadership measured? The Australian Institute of Strategic Policy has counted academic publications in different fields, and has given higher weight to publications that are cited frequently. The researchers wrote that there is a clear relationship between registered patents and the most frequently cited research results, so this method can be used to measure the academic capacity of a country or institution.

The example of hypersonic weapons can show that it is worthwhile to pay attention to the published research results. This is a controllable aircraft that can fly at a speed of more than five times the speed of sound. It is generally believed that this kind of aircraft is almost impossible or difficult to be intercepted.

The authors of the Australian Institute of Strategic Policy wrote that there is clear evidence that China is leading in this field: about half of the high-quality research reports on modern aircraft engines (including hypersonic engines) are from China, and seven out of ten of the world's advanced research institutions in this field are from China.

In terms of quantum technology, China is far ahead of the United States in three of the four categories. Quantum technology takes advantage of the fact that quantum can present multiple states at the same time compared with traditional particles. In this way, some calculations can be much faster.

In the field of post-quantum cryptography, that is, the field of encryption technology that can withstand the test of quantum computers in the future, China is ahead of the United States, which accounts for only 13% of research projects and patents, and the field of quantum communication that uses this encryption technology to ensure security is similar. However, in the research and development of quantum computers, the Australian Institute of Strategic Policy was surprised to find that the United States was significantly ahead of China.

At present, the most popular technology is probably AI. After all, ChatGPT, the AI chat software released last November, has more than 100 million active users worldwide. In this regard, the Australian Institute of Strategic Policy also believes that China is ahead of or almost equal to the United States in several areas, such as the development of artificial intelligence algorithms and the design of high-performance computer chips.

The Australian Institute of Strategic Policy believes that China's position in the field of science is not surprising, because China has long targeted such leadership. The author of the study also suggested that western countries formulate strategies to promote research and provide corresponding funds.