China has many important scientific achievements to its credit this century. Enviable even by the standards of some established science and technology powers, the achievements demonstrate China's strong scientific and technological strength and potential for development.

China's rise is in contrast to some developed countries' struggle against economic downturn. But, at the same time, it has intensified the clamor of the "China-threat" theory and made some foreign media make groundless speculations. It is imperative, therefore, that China should spare no effort to promote innovations in science and technology to build a strong and resplendent society.

The country had made significant advances in science and technology even in 20 years preceding the reforms and opening-up, but the West did not perceive them to be a "threat" because those were not in cutting-edge areas. As a latecomer to the field of science and technology, China had invested a lot of resources to strengthen its innovation capability, but it was still not seen as a competitor in the world arena.

In the past decade, especially since the release of the National Medium- and Long-Term Program for Science and Technology Development (2006-2020), China has achieved revolutionary breakthroughs in a number of important fields such as information technology and communications, aeronautics, space technology and biotechnology. For example, Chinese supercomputer Tianhe-1A, with a performance of 2.57 petaflops per second (one petaflop equals 1,000 trillion calculations per second), was adjudged the best among the world's 500 most powerful commercially available computer systems in November 2010.

What have shocked developed countries are the docking of the manned Shenzhou-9 spaceship at Tiangong-1 space lab module in June 2012, Jiaolong's journey to a depth of 7,602 meters in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean in its fifth dive, and the strength of the Beidou satellite navigation system to provide services in comparison with the US Global Positioning System and Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System.

China's rapid development in science and technology is by no means accidental. The country's huge inputs into science and technology research and human resources over the years laid a solid foundation for its leapfrog development.

Official statistics show that China's expenditure on scientific research and development was 868.7 billion yuan ($139.2 billion) in 2011, with 1.84 percent of input intensity, ranking only below the US and Japan. The country's fiscal spending on scientific and technological development in 2011 increased by 19.2 percent to reach 490.26 billion yuan, or 4.49 percent of the State's total fiscal expenditure.

By 2009, the number of people involved in science and technology fields had reached 51 million - the highest in the world - investment in human capital accounted for 12 percent of GDP, and the contribution of qualified science and technology personnel to the economic rate had reached 26.6 percent.

With the national medium-and long-term planning for development of science and technology and with adequate research funding and qualified personnel, the State-sponsored system eventually gave birth to high-level scientific research. Of course, the established powers continued to innovate in science and technology fields. But since their input-to-output ratio was much higher than China's, they had a comparatively low level of performance.

China has quietly changed the world's scientific and technological landscape, making developed countries, including the United States, feel the pressure of competition. No wonder, it has prompted some foreign media to add to the increasing cacophony of the "China threat" theory.

But even the foreign media's diatribe against China cannot stop its pace of progress. Instead, it should make China all the more determined to strengthen its science and technology fields. Otherwise, it might miss the opportunity of a new technological revolution.

China, nevertheless, has a long way to go. It should overcome its weaknesses on the basis of the existing advantages, endeavor to improve the conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements to productivity to promote economic development and thus create more research funds. It should further promote the industrialization of related developments in science and technology to get economic benefits.

China's technological breakthroughs in information technology and communications, aerospace, biotechnology and other cutting-edge fields are the first steps in the "long march" to excellence. For example, advances in China's aerospace technology will help develop its petrochemical industry, and the materials, mechanical and electrical, energy, transport, textile engineering and other sectors, which will eventually boost economic growth. The fruits of the aerospace sector's development can be put to wider use in radio, television, communications, meteorology, and satellite navigation and positioning sectors, and environment monitoring and disaster mitigation, and relief operations.

Hopefully, China will improve the conversion rate of cutting-edge technology by giving the advantages of its enterprises, universities and research institutions full play, promoting military as well as civilian use of its technologies, and dividing resources for strengthening its defense and economic construction.

The author is a researcher at Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development.

(China Daily 11/07/2012 page9)