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China TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Policy
In the late 1980s, China's goals of modernization and rapid
economic growth depended on the large-scale introduction of foreign
technology. The task was to import technology to renovate and
upgrade several thousand factories, mines, and power stations whose
levels of productivity and energy efficiency were far below
prevailing international standards. Since 1980 Chinese policy
statements have stressed the need to improve existing facilities,
to import technology rather than finished goods, and to renovate
factories through selective purchase of key technology rather than
through purchase of whole plants. This was an unprecedented
problem, since China's previous experience with technology
transfer, both in the massive Soviet technical-aid program of the
1950s and in the more modest purchases of fertilizer and
petrochemical plants in the 1960s and early 1970s, featured large
projects that brought in complete plants. In the 1980s much of the
technology to be imported was production or process technology,
representing better ways of producing items China already
manufactured, such as truck transmissions or telephone cables. Such
technology was usually the proprietary knowledge of foreign
corporations, and China demonstrated an unprecedented willingness
to cooperate with such firms. With the explicit aim of promoting
technology imports, China made great efforts to attract foreign
businesses and foreign capital and permitted joint ventures and
even foreign-owned subsidiaries to operate in China.
China's economic planners gave priority in technology imports
to electronics, telecommunications, electric-power generation and
transmission, transportation equipment, and energy-saving devices.
The degree of central control over technology imports fluctuated in
the 1980s, reflecting changing foreign trade policies and foreign
exchange balances, but the overall trend was toward devolution of
decision making to those who use the technology or equipment. Bank
loans and other means were made available to encourage end users to
select appropriate technology.
Data as of July 1987
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