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China International Ties
Since emerging from the self-imposed isolation and selfreliance of the Cultural Revolution, China has expanded its
international scientific exchanges to an unprecedented degree. The
1980s policy of opening up to the outside world, a basic element of
Deng Xiaoping's prescription for modernization, was nowhere better
exemplified than in science and technology policy
(see China and the Four Modernizations, 1979-82
, ch. 1). The goal was to help
China's science and technology reach international standards as
quickly as possible and to remedy the damage done by the Cultural
Revolution. This was achieved by participating in international
conferences, cooperating in projects with foreign scientists, and
sending thousands of Chinese graduate students and senior
researchers to foreign universities for training and joint
research.
Scientific cooperation has come to play a significant part in
China's foreign relations and diplomatic repertoire. Visits of
Chinese leaders to foreign countries are often marked by the
signing of an agreement for scientific cooperation. In mid-1987
China had diplomatic relations with 133 countries and formal,
government-to-government agreements on scientific cooperation with
54 of them
(see An Overview of China's Foreign Relations
, ch. 12).
When diplomatic relations were established between China and the
United States in January 1979, the Joint Commission in Scientific
and Technological Cooperation was founded. Since then, the two
governments have signed twenty-eight agreements on scientific and
technical cooperation in fields ranging from earthquake prediction
to industrial management. China has mutually beneficial scientific
exchange programs with both technically advanced nations and those
having only a minimal scientific capability. Although China tended
to receive aid from more scientifically advanced nations and to
render aid to the less developed, the equality implied in
scientific exchange made it a useful diplomatic form.
In 1987 China had scientific-exchange relations with 106
countries--usually in the form of agreements between the China
Association of Science and Technology and a foreign equivalent.
Incomplete statistics indicated that by 1986 Chinese scientists had
completed over 500 joint projects with scientists in the United
States and were working on 1,500 projects with counterparts in
various West European countries, 300 with those in Eastern Europe,
and at least 30 with Japanese researchers. In June 1986 the Chinese
Academy of Sciences signed an agreement with the Soviet Academy of
Sciences for scientific cooperation in unspecified fields. Many
exchanges with the United States involved Chinese-American
scientists and engineers, who collaborated with visiting Chinese
researchers in the United States and visited China to lecture on
their specialties and to advise scientific bodies.
By 1986 the China Association of Science and Technology or its
constituent associations were full members of 96 international
scientific societies and committees, and over 300 Chinese
scientists held office in international scientific bodies. China
also was an active participant in United Nations scientific
activities in the 1980s. Luoyang, Henan Province, is the site of
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization's International Silt Research and Training Center,
which specializes in problems of river silts. Apart from the 35,000
students China sent abroad for training between 1979 and 1986,
approximately 41,000 Chinese scientists took part in various
international exchanges. Between 1980 and 1986, China hosted 155
international academic conferences, which were attended by 10,000
foreign scholars and 30,000 Chinese participants. China also has
employed substantial numbers of foreign experts, often retired
scientists or engineers, as short-term consultants.
International exchanges represent one of the most successful
aspects of the Chinese government's efforts to raise the level of
science and demonstrate the strength of the centralized direction
and funding possible under China's bureaucratic organization of
science. The weaknesses of that mode of organization are evident in
the less successful efforts to improve the internal functioning and
productivity of the domestic science and technology establishment
and have generated a major effort to reform that establishment.
Data as of July 1987
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