From research to riches

THE government in Beijing is chanting a new mantra now -- science must create wealth. The Chinese comrades are no longer interested in draining the already cash-strapped state treasury by funding more and more "esoteric" research projects, which, they are convinced, contribute little to the society as a whole. So scientists have received a curt message from President Jiang Zemin. They must now concentrate in turning their research laboratories into profit-making business units. Dabbling in pure science will henceforth, be considered the domain of a select "group of elite scientists".

Zemin addressed the opening session of the 5-day long National Science and Technology Conference, called by the Communist Party of China's (cpc) Central Committee and the State Council held with much fanfare at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in end May. "Scientists must merge themselves with business," exuded Premier Li Peng, who was also present in the Great Hall. The country is geared up to develop a strategy to help build up a science & technology (s&t) structure which not only conforms but also supports and enriches the system, said Party bosses.

The White Paper announces plans to spend 80 per cent of China's research budget on "agriculture and industry", and diverts almost 100,000 scientists to "scientific and technological work geared to economic construction". The period from now to the mid-21st century will be a crucial historical period for China, it states. "And during this period the rapid development of science and technology is bound to play a vital role."

The government is hellbent on forcing the research institutes and laboratories, which till now have been spoonfed by the state's coffers, to stand up on their own feet and earn their living. "We really do not have an option," comments Dong Jinsheng, professor and counsellor, s&t, at the embassy of the People's Republic of China, New Delhi. "There are as many as 4,000 research units across the mainland of China. How can you expect the government to nurture all of them forever?" he says.

"In fact, we are merely expanding on a decision that was taken by the cpc 10 years ago -- in March 1985", he says. The reference was made to the White Paper released by the Central Commiitee on that date, based also on the premise -- reform in China's s&t management system was absolutely vital for the country's modernization programme as a whole.

"Ten years ago the government told the research institutes that they would be granted aid only on the basis of submission of specific project plans. This money too, would be a limited amount. To sustain themselves, the institutes would have to sell the technologies developed through these projects to the industries," explains Jinsheng. And the policy, he claims, has been astonishingly successful. "Now we have 13 million highly-skilled technical experts in China. This is no mean achievement," raves Jinsheng.

State officials, however, vehemently deny that basic research would be neglected. Song Jiang, minister of state, science and technology commission, publicly claims that expenditure on basic research would double to 10 per cent of China's total research budget by ad 2000. The government science budget would also treble from 0.5 per cent of the gdp to 1.5 per cent, by ad 2000.

Despite this, the 90,000-member Chinese Academy of Sciences is like a seething cauldron of dissent, with angry academicians spitting fire and brimstone at the new government policy. Zhou Guangzhao, the academy's president, in a strongly-worded article in the Communist Party newspaper, Renmin Ribao, warned leaders that economic growth cannot be achieved without investing in basic research.

Fang Lizhi, the renowned Chinese physicist -- a one time government hand -- is convinced that the White Paper is motivated to silence the academy. More than 20 of the academy's most senior members, including Xu Liangying -- a prominent science historian and Wang Gangchang -- father of China's nuclear programme -- wrote an open letter to the government a month ago, calling for greater democracy and human rights. The cpc is now out to get them, claims Lizhi. Jinsheng, however, maintains that the government wants the institutions to thrive and prosper. With China making a determined bid to enter the international market, the nation's frontrunning industrial units are all rushing to set up their own r&d wings to cope with competition.

The government has even launched a network service in China's now thriving technology market. Its main function is to establish contacts between institutions developing new technologies and companies looking for sophisticated production modes.

"Now the total turnover in our tech market is a whopping us $4 billion. And the demand is increasing," claims Jinsheng.

While critics sneer at the White Paper's excessive "rhetorics", and express doubts about its viability, steadfast loyalists like Jinsheng swear by it. Meanwhile, neutral observers like Peter Suttmeier, director, Centre for Asia and Pacific Studies at the University of Oregon, usa, states, "The document is too significant to be dismissed as just another piece of rhetoric." Adding a dash of spice to the present scenario is a report published by the Australian National Academy predicting that China will be the world's second-largest economy and among the 6 leading trading nations by ad 2005.

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