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China LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY
Despite marked improvement over the early years of the People's
Republic, the technological level of Chinese industry generally
remained quite low in the late 1980s. The Chinese made remarkable
technological progress in some areas, such as nuclear weaponry,
satellites, and computers; but overall the industrial sector lagged
far behind that of the developed countries
(see The Reform Program
, ch. 9). Much of China's machinery and equipment dated from the
1950s and 1960s. The Soviet Union had provided technology
assistance during the 1950s, but such aid ended abruptly in the
early 1960s with the break in bilateral relations
(see The Soviet Union
, ch. 12).
One of the main reasons for lagging technology was the lack of
coordination between research institutes and production
enterprises. Between 1979 and 1984, the number of major scientific
and technical research discoveries grew from 2,790 to 10,000 and
the number of inventions approved by the state from 42 to 264. Most
of the discoveries and inventions were never implemented. This was
mainly because research institutes and production enterprises
operated independently, with little or no exchange of information.
Also, most enterprise managers were more concerned with meeting
production quotas than with technological innovations.
There were no clear goals for research and development, and no
concept of the importance of research and development to industry.
Instead, efforts concentrated on research and development for
purely scientific purposes. Therefore, China did not develop a
broad base of industrial research and development. By 1981 only 8
percent of the total research and development work force was
involved in industrial research compared to 72 percent in the
United States. In 1983 only 3.2 persons per 10,000 population were
involved in research, compared to 31 per 10,000 in the United
States. Institutional obstacles and resource shortages also plagued
research institutes.
In 1985 the CCP issued the "Resolution on the Reform of the
Science and Technology Management System." The resolution sought to
coordinate research and production more closely. Part of the
overall strategy of the Four Modernizations was to redirect science
and technology toward economic progress. Research institutes were
to compete for contracts from various industries and operate on a
fee-for-service basis. Emphasis went to cooperation among
factories, universities, and other institutes.
As of 1987, the status of this effort remained unclear. The
metallurgical industry had applied more internal technological
innovation than the electronics industry because the technologies
in the former were more developed than in the latter. The
metallurgy industry made a stronger effort to blend research and
production in individual enterprises. Also, major metallurgical
complexes had internal research facilities for new-product
research. On the other hand, electronics was much more
compartmentalized; by the late 1980s there was no decisive breaking
of the barriers between the technical and production elements.
China's assimilation of imported technology had mixed results
in the mid-1980s. There had been some remarkable accomplishments,
but they had taken a long time. For example, advanced West German
cold-rolling technology had moved into the Anshan iron and steel
complex in Liaoning Province. The electronics sector was not as
successful, because of shortages of raw materials, lack of a
reliable power supply, low manpower skill, and a shortage of
service and applications personnel. An exception was the Jiangnan
Semiconductor Plant in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, which received
equipment from numerous Japanese and American companies. By 1987 it
was highly productive. However, China's electronics industry, like
most other industries, was far from implementing advanced
technology, whatever its source.
Data as of July 1987
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