China narrows technology gap with US

America remains the world’s science and technology leader by minting a record number of patents and having “prolific inventors” in Silicon Valley and university and company labs, but China is gaining ground, the National Science Board said Friday in its congressionally mandated biennial report on science and engineering.
“The report is not just about where we stand, it’s about where we are headed,” National Science Foundation director Arden Bement said at the White House while rolling out the report.

The 2010 report declared 2007 was the year China caught up to the US in the number of researchers and doctoral degrees it handed out in natural sciences and engineering. The US awarded 22,500 doctorates in natural sciences and engineering in 2007, but more than half of them were awarded to foreign nationals from countries like India, China and Russia.

Past experience suggests that most new Ph.D.s will stay in the US. Despite the long wait to get a Green card visa, sluggish US economy and hype about reverse brain drain, the report shows that 60 per cent of temporary visa holders who earned doctorates in science in engineering in 1997 were still working in the US — and had no intention of leaving.

“While the US is the largest R&D performing nation — representing one-third of total world investment — Asia has narrowed the gap due to the sustained annual increases by China,” said Jose-Marie Griffiths, a member of the National Science Board.

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