Science diplomacy in China: Past,present and future

Xin Li

Ministry of Science and Technology,China

Abstract Science diplomacy has played an important role in Chinese history,including in the history of science and technology (S&T) development.While we may consider science diplomacy as simply a part of China’s Reform and Opening-up policy,the fact is that even in the Kuomintang period (1925–1949) or the Maoist period (1949–1976) it was a key element of Chinese foreign relations.The targets and nature of science diplomacy were shaped by the prevailing politics and economic issues of the times.For example,the Cold War limited the breadth and depth of S&T cooperation between China and the West.Nonetheless,the People’s Republic of China pursued cooperation with the Soviet Union and newly independent countries in a very steadfast manner and continues to engage with Russia and developing countries today.This article analyses the nature of science diplomacy as an element of both China’s S&T development and its foreign relations.The interactions and practices at the intersection of science and foreign policy in China are manifold.In addition to providing a comprehensive overview,this article also highlights evolving trends,especially in terms of the deepening of China’s linkages across the international S&T system.Finally,the article examines the recent impact of the apparent rise of techno-nationalism and how this has affected the nature of China’s international S&T activities regarding Beijing’s use of science diplomacy.

Keywords Science diplomacy,China,science and technology policy,science and technology development

1.The pre-1949 period: Neglect and ignorance

The earliest science diplomacy1case in China dates to the Warring States Period (475–221 BCE),during which more than 20 rival states battled viciously for territorial advantage and dominance before Emperor Qin Shi Huang eventually united China.According to the ‘Gong Shu’ chapter of the bookMozi,2the ancient Chinese philosopher and inventor Mozi (Micius) demonstrated on a wargaming table how defence technologies that he had developed could thwart siege engines designed by the master craftsman Gongshu Ban (Lu Ban),thus persuading the king of Chu not to launch a military campaign against the vassal state of Song.

Once an innovative civilization,China produced great inventions such as papermaking,printing,gunpowder and the compass.Technologies were diffused through the Silk Road to other parts of Asia and Europe(Zhang,2019a).However,China’s indigenous advancement of technology gradually became stagnant before and after Jesuit missionaries introduced Greek mathematics,the latest European knowledge of astronomy and mapping,and devices such as the chime clock and clavichord to China during the 16th and 17th centuries.Western knowledge and technologies were used as stepping stones to promote missionary work in China.

When King George III sent the Macartney Mission to China in 1792,Emperor Qianlong refused to give up the long-standing policy of self-isolation and rejected any idea of learning from foreigners.Carefully selected state gifts such as astronomical instruments,which represented the newest evidence of British scientific and technological progress,were intentionally disparaged and locked in the storehouse of the Forbidden City thereafter (Guo,2019;Han,2005).Nevertheless,Lord Macartney did not return empty-handed.His mission conducted a variety of local surveys of techniques,geography,fortress building,medicine and textiles;his colleagues also collected more than 400 plant specimens from China,including tea seeds(Chang,2009).

In 1872,as part of the Self-strengthening Movement,the Qing government sent its first batch of students abroad to study advanced technologies (Zhang,2011)after China was defeated overwhelmingly in the two Opium Wars and was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties with the Western powers.Factories based on imported machines and technologies were built in China,and science and technology (S&T)books were translated into Chinese.However,China’s defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 marked the failure of the Self-strengthening Movement and called into question its principle of ‘Chinese Substance and Western Utility’.

In 1909,the first group of Chinese students funded by the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program arrived in the US.Two years later,the Tsinghua School was established in Beijing as the programme’s official preparatory school.The school became Tsinghua University in 1929 and went on to become one of China’s most prestigious research universities.Most of the first generation of Chinese scientists were sponsored by the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program and studied abroad.The Rockefeller Foundation channelled funds to research-based clinical medicine in China,which led to the establishment of the Peking Union Medical College in 1917.China’s modern church-run universities sponsored by Western European and North American churches also made contributions to science and medical education in China.Generations of returned students and scholars have introduced modern S&T to China with the goal of building a more prosperous and stronger country.The conclusion that‘lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to being bullied and humiliated’would constantly recur to Chinese leaders of different political backgrounds and to patriotic scientists.

Although they were few in number—and also by and large neglected and insufficiently funded—Chinese scientists launched national societies and academic journals,strove to explore research areas new to China,and kept in communication with the international scientific community.During World War II,Joseph Needham was dispatched to become Scientific Counsellor to China and oversaw a British effort to help China maintain its scientific activity despite the hardship caused by the Japanese occupation across many parts of the country.3His experience inspired a monumental work,the voluminousScience and Civilization in China,which reminded Chinese intellectuals that China had a rich and glorious history of S&T development in ancient times.However,in a backward nation stricken with poverty,political turmoil,foreign aggression and civil war before 1949,successive Chinese governments neither took science seriously nor practised science diplomacy in any meaningful manner to facilitate domestic research or international cooperation.

2.1949–1978: From ‘leaning to one side’ to China–Western world rapprochement

With the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949,the ruling Communist Party of China was determined to develop S&T and cultivate domestic talent on a large scale to change the country’s extremely lagging status.Around 1200 Chinese students and scholars returned from the US before the outbreak of the Korean War or after the Eisenhower administration lifted its travel ban in 1955 (Wang and Liu,2012).One typical case of science diplomacy illustrated what could happen between two hostile nations: although the US refused to recognize the newly established Chinese government,the China–US Ambassadorial Talks at Geneva in 1955 (Chang,1996)4led to the release of the Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen,who had been detained in the US since 1950.

The 1950s witnessed more than 18,000 Soviet experts arrive in China,and 38,000 Chinese students,researchers and technicians studied or trained in the Soviet Union (Shen,2015).With the aid of the Soviet Union,the ‘156 Major Projects’—most in the coalmining,power,steel and iron,non-ferrous metals,petroleum,chemical,mechanical,medical and military industries—not only laid the foundation for industrialization in China but also served as the greatest example of comprehensive technology transfer in history.When the Chinese government drafted its first national S&T development plan (the Long-term Plan for Science and Technology Development 1956–1967) and sought comments from the Soviet Union,Premier Zhou Enlai declared that prominent researchers and students should be sent to the Soviet Union as soon as possible for training or graduate education.They would return and serve as seeds for the development of many new disciplines in China(Zhang and Zhang,2019).

Following the‘leaning to one side’foreign policy,China’s science diplomacy activities can be viewed in terms of three categories: 1) intergovernmental cooperation with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries based on formal agreements;2)exchanges with Asian and African non-socialist countries through government agencies;and 3)people-to-people exchanges with Western countries and Japan.China signed its first governmental S&T cooperation agreement with Czechoslovakia in 1952 and another later with the Soviet Union in 1954.A Technology Cooperation Bureau was set up under the State Planning Commission (SPC) in 1953 to carry out all bilateral agreements.In 1956,the SPC formulated the 1956–1967 International Cooperation Plan,and,one year later,China and the Soviet Union signed another agreement on research cooperation emphasizing 16 fields with 122 joint projects,all of which were designed to facilitate the implementation of the S&T development long-term plan.

Since 1956,the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)has encouraged the exchange of academic publications with scientists,academic societies and research institutions in both socialist and Western countries(Zhang,2019b).China’s collection and exchange of S&T information(journals,publications,patents,standards etc.) with foreign partners developed gradually and was retained as an important channel for knowing the world,even in the Cultural Revolution period.Based on the ‘Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence’ proposed in 1953 and the ‘Eight Principles for Economic Aid and Technical Assistance to Other Countries’ announced during Premier Zhou Enlai’s visit to 14 Asian and African countries during 1963–1964(Jin,2017),China started to provide technological aid to newly independent nations in Asia and Africa,as well as socialist nations such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam)and Cuba.In early 1963,the first Chinese medical assistance teamarrived in Algeria.As the first foreign medical team in Algeria after its independence,it also launched the history of Chinese medical teams providing assistance to other nations (CIDCA,2018).Technical aid was considered as part of Sino-Soviet or Sino-US competition to gain influence in the Third World.

In 1958,the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC) was established and took responsibility for managing international S&T exchanges and cooperation.From this time,science diplomats were assigned to Chinese embassies in the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries.The SSTC introduced several adjustments to China’s science diplomacy policy after the Sino-Soviet split in 1960.Bilateral collaboration with the Soviet Union was drastically reduced.Meanwhile,people-to-people exchanges with Western European,Australian and Japanese scientists increased and surpassed those with the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries during the 1963–1965 period.Foreign experts invited from Japan and Western Europe also outnumbered those from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries by the mid-1960s(Zhang,2019b).The SSTC began to send science diplomats to the UK,Sweden and Switzerland in 1961.In the early 1960s,China signed import contracts with Japanese and Western European suppliers for 84 sets of equipment and technology in the petrochemical,metallurgical,mining,electronic and precision mechanical industries (Niu,2016).

Science diplomacy played an important role in breaking the arbitrary US blockade on China.In 1956,Beijing hosted the 16th executive council meeting and 10th anniversary celebrations of the World Federation of Scientific Workers,which was the first international conference organized by an international science organization in China after 1949.The 1964 Peking Symposium5marked the first large-scale international science conference that China had organized.A total of 367 scientists from 44 countries and regions in Asia,Africa,Latin America and Oceania attended the symposium.In 1966,the Straton model put forward by Chinese physicists was presented at the Summer Physics Colloquium of the Peking Symposium(Liu,2018).6Although Chinese scientists withdrew from many international academic organizations and conferences to protest against the violation of the one-China principle (Zhang and Wang,2009),they actively participated in the Pugwash Conferences with colleagues from both the Eastern and Western blocs in the late 1950s to seek a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction (Zhou,2005).All these activities showcased China’s unremitting efforts to break the ‘Bamboo Curtain’ imposed by the US.Unfortunately,soon thereafter,international exchanges came to a halt due to the onset of the Cultural Revolution(1966–1976).

The Chinese scientific community was in chaos and isolation during the early years of the Cultural Revolution.The SSTC was dissolved in 1970,and all activities under the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) were suspended;the CAS served as the only window (sometimes in the name of CAST) to the outside world for the Chinese scientific community.After the United Nations (UN) recognized the government of the People’s Republic of China and restored all its rights in 1971,China established formal diplomatic relations with most Western countries.China resumed its membership of the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) and attended the UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972—the first international conference that China had participated in since the restoration of its lawful seat in the UN.Sino-US people-to-people exchanges were restored after President Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972.With the support of both governments and as one of the results of the China–US rapprochement,the Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China,together with the CAS,actively organized exchanges of visits before China and the US established formal diplomatic relations in 1979 (Smith,1998).Both Chinese-Americans and returned scientists from the US enthusiastically facilitated numerous two-way visits(Zhang,2020a).

During the same period,Western European countries,Japan and Australia opened a series of industrial exhibitions in China to promote more sales of technology,products and equipment (Chen,2017).In 1973,a new wave of equipment and technology imports from Western countries began;the items included 26 full-scale plants or complete sets of equipment,totalling US$4.3 billion,in key sectors such as petrochemicals,power and steel (Chen,2008).Still confronting the US embargo—which was even stricter than that on the Soviet Union—and the dramatic interruption of assistance from the Soviet Union,both returned and domestically trained scientists in China worked together against enormous odds to make a series of significant achievements before 1978,such as the 10,000-ton hydraulic press (1961),the total synthesis of bovine insulin (1965) (Mcelheny,1966),the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge (1968),the Dongfanghong-1 satellite (1970),artemisinin (1971)7and hybrid rice breeding(1973)8(WFPF,2008).

3.1978–2000: Integration into the international scientific community and global innovation network

With the downfall of the ‘Gang of Four’,Deng Xiaoping and other reform-oriented Chinese leaders made frequent visits to Western Europe,Japan and the US in the late 1970s (Cao,2018;Sina News,2008).Their sense of concern for the prevailing Chinese situation was heightened when they realized the widening gap between China and the Western world.The Chinese government re-established the SSTC in 1977,and it quickly resumed its responsibilities for managing international S&T exchanges and cooperation.Nine months before the formal adoption of the Reform and Opening-up policy,Deng declared at the opening ceremony of the first National Science Conference,held in March 1978,that China would actively carry out international academic activities and strengthen friendly exchanges with the scientific communities of other nations.He also expressed sincere gratitude to all foreign friends who helped China in developing S&T (Sohu News,2008).The‘Springtime of Science’ after the Cultural Revolution boosted not only intergovernmental ties but also people-to-people exchanges with foreign partners.

In January 1978,China signed an S&T agreement with France as its first intergovernmental S&T agreement with a Western nation.Deng Xiaoping and President Jimmy Carter signed an umbrella-like bilateral S&T cooperation agreement during Deng’s official visit to the US in January 1979(Zhang,2014).Having recognized the potential of S&T ties as a precursor to bilateral trade,the US government moved to loosen export controls on China.Agreements with Italy,West Germany,the UK,Sweden and Japan were successively forged during the 1978–1980 period.From these initial broad agreements,numerous protocols and memorandums of understanding(MoUs)were signed targeting specific fields of cooperation between Chinese ministries and their foreign counterparts according to their principal range of responsibilities.A third wave of equipment and technology imports occurred in 1978 and included 22 complete sets of equipment from Western countries (Liu,2008).The Chinese government also accepted technological aid from many Western countries,including grants from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),the UK Overseas Development Administration(ODA),the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada and the UN system.China made donations to the UN Fund for Science and Technology and also received funds to build new research institutes.A quarter of the UN Development Programme grants to China was spent on S&T projects with a focus on areas such as new energy,computers,information technology and new materials.China joined the World Intellectual Property Organization in 1980,when the concept of intellectual property was almost unknown in China (WIPO,2010).The Patent Law promulgated four years later cleared the way for both trade and S&T cooperation between China and Western countries.In 1991,the World Bank approved the Key Studies Development Project,which provided loans to China to support research and graduate-student training in state key laboratories.9Quite clearly,from the perspectives of both China and the West,S&T cooperation was seen as an effective mechanism to bring China into the mainstream of international relations and help support China’s ‘four modernizations’ programme (for the modernization of industry,agriculture,national defence and science and technology).

China resumed its S&T ties with the Soviet Union in 1984,but China’s science diplomacy maintained its principal focus on cooperation with the Western world in the 1980s.After joining more international academic organizations,such as the International Council of Scientific Unions (now the International Science Council),increasing numbers of Chinese scientists were elected to senior positions.Since 1987,the CAS has been supporting scientists from developing countries to receive training,attend academic seminars and conduct joint research and investigations in China through a south–south cooperation fund established with the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS,later renamed as The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries).

Outside of government,‘bottom-up’personal connections,along with formal or informal institutional collaboration,have been flourishing among scientists,universities and research institutes in China and around the world.In addition to exchanges of visits,it has been common for Chinese scientists to conduct joint R&D programmes with foreign partners and to host or attend workshops and exhibitions worldwide.The Chinese government has continued to send batches of publicly funded students and visiting scholars to Western countries since 1979,and it later encouraged a larger number of self-funded students to study abroad.However,during the initial three decades of sending Chinese students and scholars abroad,China suffered from a serious ‘brain drain’ problem because most of the best and the brightest students were inclined to stay abroad and acquire foreign citizenship (Wu,2007).In 1983,in parallel to the efforts at ‘going out’,Deng Xiaoping decided to invite and enable more overseas Chinese and non-Chinese talent to come to China to underpin both economic growth and S&T development.Meanwhile,increasing numbers of joint ventures and non-Chinese-owned companies were opened in China’s eastern coastal areas;some of them brought new technologies and managerial skills to China and yielded some important results in terms of technology transfer.

Since 1985,the Chinese government has launched several rounds of reforms across its S&T system (IDRC and SSTC,1997;OECD,2008).The National S&T Conference held in 1985 set the S&T policy tone that ‘economic development must rely on science and technology,which in turn should be oriented to economic development’.National S&T initiatives were deployed in three areas: economic development,high-tech research and high-tech industry development,and fundamental research.In 1986,the SSTC recalibrated its science diplomacy policy,which up to that point had been primarily focused on serving only national S&T initiatives.A new effort in science diplomacy was launched to support national S&T programmes and overall economic development.The new policy also enabled the introduction of foreign experts and technologies,as well as the export of domestic expertise and technology-based products as part of a broadening of the country’s science diplomacy agenda.Research institutes and universities,all of which were state-owned at the time,bore both positive and negative consequences during the transition from the former command economy to a new market-oriented economy.The key concepts and best practices of intellectual property rights (IPR)protection,commercialization of R&D results,and open competition and merit-based peer-review procedures were introduced to China from Western countries and international organizations.As a result,a brand-new intellectual-property regime was established,the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) was formed,new nuclear safety regulations were put in place,an improved R&D statistical system was introduced,a venture-capital market was initiated,and science parks and incubators were gradually established in China in the 1980s and 1990s.

Science diplomacy also played a key role in repairing Sino-US relations after 1989.In 1991,after four rounds of negotiation in three years,China and the US signed the IPR Annex of the bilateral S&T Cooperation Agreement (Duan,2003)—a landmark document that highlighted China’s determination to protect IPR in international S&T collaborations.SSTC Minister Song Jian led a senior officials delegation to visit the US and co-host the Joint Commission Meeting on S&T Cooperation in 1994.The strategic role of science diplomacy was strongly in evidence during this period as both China and the West sought to bring about a new era of closer relations and to expand cooperation,since S&T collaboration was playing a very significant role in building trust and bringing mutual benefits.

In 1995,the then Chinese President Jiang Zemin put forward the ‘Strategy of Invigorating China through Science and Education’ at the National S&T Conference in Beijing.Under the guidance of China’s diplomatic strategy,the mission of international exchanges and cooperation became focused on promoting S&T progress in different economic and social domains,and science diplomacy was to be used first and foremost to serve the needs of economic development.International cooperation made a significant contribution to domestic research projects such as the Beijing Electron–Positron Collider (with the US),the demonstration project of the renewable-energy system in Dachen Island (with the then European Economic Community),the Sino-Japan Friendship Center for Environmental Protection,and the HT-7 Superconducting Tokamak (with Russia),among others.

The Friendship Award set up by the Chinese government in 1991 is regarded as the highest award for non-Chinese experts who have made outstanding contributions to China’s economic and social progress.Since 1995,the China International S&T Cooperation Award has been conferred on non-Chinese individuals or organizations that have made important contributions to China’s S&T development (NOSTA,2017).China’s growing role in multilateral mechanisms also led to more initiatives calling for S&T cooperation,such as the first APEC Regional Science and Technology Cooperation Ministerial Meeting (APEC,1995),the ASEM Science and Technology Ministers’Meeting (MOFA,1999a,1999b),the first Meeting of Heads of Science and Technology Ministries and Departments of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Member States (2010),the Group on Earth Observations Ministerial Summit(GEO,2010),the Third World Organization for Women in Science Fourth General Assembly and International Conference (CAS,2010),the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum 4th Ministerial Meeting (2011),10TWAS general conferences and general meetings (1987,2003,2012 and 2022),11the G20 Science,Technology and Innovation Ministers Meeting (2016)12and the 5th BRICS Science,Technology and Innovation Ministerial Meeting (2017).13China was among the first countries to formulate a national population and development strategy,titled ‘China’s Agenda 21: White Paper on China’s Population,Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century’,soon after the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992,and it adopted a series of policies and measures to fully capitalize on S&T for sustainable development.

4.The new century: Opportunities and challenges for China as an initiator and contributor

In 2000,gross domestic expenditure on R&D accounted for only 0.89%of China’s gross domestic product(NBS and MOST,2020).Clearly,this placed the country at the low end of the rankings among the world’s leading technological countries.In fact,at that time,if one were to describe the Chinese S&T situation,three shortcomings stood out: insufficient funding,lack of high-end talent with a ceaseless brain drain,and dated infrastructure with inadequate equipment and facilities.Since that time,however,the Chinese government—at both the national and local levels,as well as across many industrial sectors—has drastically increased its R&D investments.Two decades later,China has now become the second-largest R&D performer in terms of overall spending on a per country basis,and it accounts for over 22% of total world R&D expenditure (NSB,2022).It is also increasingly prominent in industries that rely intensively on S&T knowledge.

The booming domestic market has bred many privately owned high-tech companies,such as Lenovo,Huawei and DJI,which have also become competitive in the global marketplace.After China’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001,increasing numbers of multinational corporations expanded their presence in the Chinese market and opened local R&D centres to tap into China’s growing talent pool.In 2003,the first ever National Talent Conference was held,and the then Chinese President,Hu Jintao,elaborated that China should evolve from a populous nation to one with a competitive talent pool.With ever-increasing domestic research and market opportunities,overseas Chinese students and scholars have gradually started to return home to pursue their research careers or build start-up businesses.The numbers of non-Chinese scholars sponsored by talent programmes and non-Chinese STEM students in China,however,are still very limited today.

The SSTC was renamed the Ministry of Science and Technology(MOST)in the government restructuring of 1998.The MOST took the leading role in drafting the National Medium-and Long-term S&T Development Plan 2006–2020,which called for China to become an innovation-driven society by the year 2020.Because of worries about China’s heavy reliance on foreign technologies,the plan put indigenous innovation at its core while still highlighting the significance of international exchanges and collaboration (State Council,2006).The MOST has also formulated five-year guiding plans for international S&T cooperation since 2000 (State Council,2000;Xinhua News Agency,2006;MOST,2011,2017).By 2020,China had signed 114 intergovernmental S&T agreements and established cooperative ties with 161 countries and regions (State Council,2020a),although the limited staff and financial resources of the MOST often leave some agreements sitting idle while others get extensive attention (Wagner and Simon,2022;Wagner,2022).

Today,increasing numbers of stakeholders in China are taking part in international S&T activities.In 2018,the MOST merged with the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs(SAFEA) and strengthened its function of attracting non-Chinese talent.In addition to the five S&T-related agencies (MOST/SAFEA,CAS,CAE,NSFC and CAST),other ministries14of the central government,local governments,universities,public research institutions,and state-owned and private enterprises also play their roles.Since the missions of individual government ministries vary,there are different agencies involved in each case of bilateral or multilateral cooperation.In general,people-to-people S&T exchanges and collaborations have outpaced activities under most of the bilateral agreements with developed countries.The internationalization of the Chinese S&T system has begun to take hold via both official and non-official efforts since 2000.However,Chinese scientific enterprise is still less international than that of Western scientific powers.

While many prominent researchers in China have studied and worked abroad,China’s S&T is still overwhelmingly dominated by ethnic Chinese people,and there is a very limited presence of non-Chinese scholars and students,who often have difficulty pursuing their professional careers in China(Serger et al.,2021).A new portfolio of diversified policy tools for science diplomacy has also been implemented.These new approaches have the principal goals of deepening and expanding China’s ties with the global scientific community and ensuring that China has a major role in shaping international S&T relations.Since the remarkable progress in China has attracted worldwide attention,more S&T diplomats have been sent to both developed and developing nations to promote bilateral S&T ties and to publicize Chinese science,technology and innovation (STI) policies and practices.

Entering the new millennium,China has become both a taker and a giver in terms of conducting eyecatching joint projects with Western and Russian partners,such as the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment (Xin,2021),the Wuhan P4 Laboratory(CAS Wuhan Branch,2017),the Tibet ASγ(ASgamma) experiment (CAS,2021a,2021b;Tibet ASγ Collaboration,2021),and the China Experimental Fast Reactor.Despite its rapid growth in terms of publications over the last 20 years,China has a low rate of international collaboration,and this has hardly grown since 1999 (Flagg et al.,2021).In 2018,US authors of science and engineering articles collaborated most frequently with partners from China (25.71%),and vice versa(43.65%)(NSB,2019).The trend of weakening collaboration between China and the US since 2017 has already been identified (Zhu et al.,2021;Jia et al.,2022;Crow,2022a;Baker,2022),and the number of researchers with dual US–China affiliations is falling (Noorden,2022).Studies have also shown that the US has benefited significantly from such partnerships (Lee and Haupt,2020),and strategies requiring US allies to ‘decouple’ from China in key fields of R&D will potentially hurt‘Five Eyes’partners far more than either the US or the European Union (Flagg et al.,2021).

Before the COVID-19 pandemic,‘innovation dialogue’ mechanisms with the US,the European Union,Germany,France and Japan had been established,as increasing numbers of Western countries had started to pay more attention to Chinese innovation policies,especially those related to high-tech industries,IPR protection,technical standards and so on.China’s rapid rise from an innovation laggard to becoming a potential leader has driven this new attention,which has had both positive and negative consequences,as discussed below.

Regarding cooperation in space engineering,more bilateral trust and complicated arrangements are needed between China and partners in other countries.China has signed more than 100 space agreements and MoUs with other countries and international organizations since 1985,15which was the year when China announced that the Long March rocket family would offer commercial satellite launch services for users abroad.The first commercial Chinese launch of a US-built satellite occurred in 1990.However,the 1999 Cox Report ended Chinese launches of any satellite built by the US or with US components (Kulacki,2011).Since 2011,the Wolf Amendment added to the annual Appropriation Bill has further banned scientific cooperation with China by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration.In 2008,China and other Asian countries established an intergovernmental organization: the Asia–Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO).Headquartered in Beijing,APSCO provides a cooperative mechanism for developing countries in the region to be able to make peaceful use of space as a driver for development.Joint projects with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia,France,Italy,Brazil and other developing countries are booming in the fields of space science,deep-space exploration,manned space missions,Earth observation,satellite navigation,applications of space technologies,space debris,and commercial satellite manufacturing and launches.The China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite programme,which was launched in 1988,is often cited as a rare but very successful case of south–south cooperation in the hightech domain.

South–south collaboration is now a priority in China’s science diplomacy portfolio.China has launched S&T partnership programmes with Africa,the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,South Asia,Arabic states,Latin America and SCO member countries since 2009.China’s persistent strategy of using S&T to empower socio-economic development and alleviate poverty helps to motivate other developing countries.In 2013,the CAS launched an International Science and Education Outreach Programme on training and joint research with developing countries (Xinhua News Agency,2014).Centres of excellence in the fields of astronomy,space weather,medicine,biodiversity,ecology and environment,earth science,and marine science have been built in South America,Central Asia,South and Southeast Asia,and Africa.

In 2016,the MOST issued the Belt and Road Science,Technology and Innovation Cooperation Plan (MOST,2016).Follow-up actions have consisted of people-to-people exchanges,including talented young scientist programmes and international training programmes,joint laboratories,science parks and technology-transfer centres (China Plus,2017).Many developing countries hope to learn a great deal from the Chinese experience,while the Chinese government hopes to solidify China’s economic ties with more nations and enhance China’s position as a global agenda setter.To date,it seems that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has had no evident effects on China’s scientific research output.China’s top universities may have ever more students from the BRI countries,but they recruit their faculty from and focus their premier research partnerships on leading Western universities(Armitage and Woolston,2021).

China is no longer a bystander and is now a major contributor to international research programmes and megascience projects such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and the Square Kilometre Array.In 2018,the Chinese government issued a plan to encourage its domestic scientific community to initiate international megascience research programmes or projects(State Council,2018).The UN/China Cooperation on the Utilization of the China Space Station initiative provides scientists from around the world an opportunity to conduct their own experiments on board the China Space Station.16In June 2019,the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs and the China Manned Space Agency announced that six experiments had been granted a place aboard the China Space Station,and three more received conditional acceptance.The accepted proposals cover areas including astronomy,space medicine,space life science,biotechnology,microgravity fluid physics,microgravity combustion and space technologies.The 23 winning institutions are based in a wide range of 17 developed and developing countries(Jones,2019).Lunar samples and data collected by theChang’emission will also be shared with international partners (Zhang,2020b).The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) built by the CAS in south-west China’s Guizhou Province,which is by far the largest single dish radio telescope in the world,has been open to astronomers worldwide for observation applications since April 2021 (China Daily,2021).

As a member of the group of developing countries,China has actively participated in the discussion of common challenges and STI governance under the frameworks of the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development,UNESCO,the UN Facilitation Mechanism (which was established by the 2030 Agenda to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals),the Technology Mechanism under the Paris Agreement on climate change,and the first International Summit on Human Gene Editing,17among others.China’s involvement in these activities highlights its transition from being a marginal player in international S&T affairs to being a key player in helping to define priorities for global action in the coming years.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started,in Wuhan,China,the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention quickly isolated the first novel coronavirus strain,and,together with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology,submitted the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus to the World Health Organization (WHO),and the sequence was published by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data to be shared globally (State Council,2020b).Later,Chinese doctors and researchers organized numerous video conferences on the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 and shared clinical research findings with peers from all over the world.China has also been a leader in combating the coronavirus pandemic,making its medical equipment and successfully approved vaccines available to many countries in need.China’s rapid suppression of the virus on the domestic level has also served as a positive example for many countries.The Chinese government has indicated its firm commitment to cooperating with the WHO and other countries to help prevent future viruses from becoming global pandemics.

The newly revisedLaw on Progress of Science and Technologydedicates a chapter to international S&T cooperation.18In 2017,a document namedGuideline for Foreign Scientists to Participate in National R&D Programswas issued by the MOST.Non-Chinese scientists will be invited to participate in the strategic study,task design and evaluation of national R&D programmes.They can also submit proposals as principal investigators or join the peer-review team.More national laboratories and megascience research infrastructure projects have been opened to the world (Normile,2021).The Chinese government also plans to establish global research funds and open to the world during the 14th Five-year Plan period (2021–2025).

The above-cited progress notwithstanding,in recent years,various challenges to China’s science diplomacy policy and practices have emerged.They include political interventions by other governments in S&T cooperation,‘China-bashing’ by Western countries,questions about research integrity and ethical codes in the Chinese S&T system,and underrepresentation by China in international organizations.When the former Trump administration in the US waged its so-called ‘trade war’ against China in 2018,most observers noticed that the‘war proclamation’– theSection 301 Report19released by the United States Trade Representative—mentioned‘trade deficit’only once—at the beginning of the report when it quoted President Trump’s instructions to start the investigation.The chapter titles of the report,which refer to areas including the technology-transfer regime,licensing restrictions,investment to acquire foreign technology,standardization laws and talent acquisition,clearly illustrate that it has been a war targeted largely at S&T competition.A later document issued by the White House (2018) even blamed China for opensource collection of S&T information.

The ongoing efforts of the US to‘decouple’from China have not only disrupted the global trade and supply chains of many high-tech industries but also hindered academic exchanges as well as research and education collaboration (Tang et al.,2021).Partial decoupling—especially in high-tech domains and critical supply chains,industrial policy,and technology-related national security issues—is now at the forefront of bilateral tensions.Sino-US S&T cooperation has been affected by an emerging geopolitical rivalry and exposed to intensive public scrutiny;many programmes and projects between China and the US—as well as between China and Europe,Japan and Australia—have fallen victim to unwarranted political attacks because of the unease raised by China’s rapid rise as a country of growing influence in international S&T competition.The notorious China Initiative(DOJ,2021) executed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has already had a chilling effect on scientific collaboration and created fear and distraction among the US scientific community.Although the DOJ (2022) announced the end of the China Initiative in February 2022,continued prosecutions serve as a warning to other Asian and Asian-American researchers and technologists who have increasingly come to view US universities as hostile places to work (German and Liang,2022).It has also blocked the issuance of visas to many Chinese scholars hoping to engage in collaboration with their US counterparts.When scientists in the US became more cautious about communicating with their Chinese counterparts,the latter were also hesitant to collaborate with former colleagues at US national laboratories—not because of concern from the Chinese side,but because of how this might affect US colleagues’ jobs.This will be a tragedy for a generation of scientists who,right from the start,were pressured to be suspicious of their biggest collaborators (Crow,2022b).US–China tensions are likely to last and thus have longterm consequences.

In September 2020,Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed at a symposium attended by domestic and foreign scientists in Beijing that international cooperation in S&T is a general trend of the times.The more blockades and suppression China may encounter,the more it should avoid isolating itself from the rest of the world (Xinhua News Agency,2020).President Xi reiterated at the 2021 Zhongguancun Forum that China will strengthen international S&T exchanges with a more open attitude and will actively participate in global innovation networks to jointly promote basic research and push forward the application of S&T achievements.China will also shape the concept of ‘developing S&T for good purposes’,improve global S&T governance,and enhance the well-being of mankind (People’s Daily,2021;Xinhua News Agency,2021a).Accepting the bumpy road ahead,the newly approved14th Five-year Plan and Long-range Objectives through 2035,issued in March 2021,set the policy tone that China will implement an international S&T cooperation strategy featuring openness,inclusiveness and shared benefits,and it will actively integrate into the global innovation network (Xinhua News Agency,2021b;NDRC,2022).To fulfil the goal of building a community with a shared future for humankind,China’s science diplomacy will continue to promote international exchanges and cooperation to expand the frontiers of human knowledge,to tackle all types of common challenges,and to improve the global governance of STI.

Science provides a non-ideological environment for participation in the free exchange of ideas between people,regardless of their cultural,national or religious backgrounds.It is perceived as the institution that stands out in an exemplary manner or—to put it more bluntly—as a beacon of hope and a key source of human development,well-being and global understanding (Rungius,2018).Science is also naturally and inherently inclined to international exchange and cooperation.The trend of internationalization of S&T shall not be reversed,and the global scientific community shall not be fragmented.For China,based on statements from the government leadership over the past several decades,S&T cooperation is not a one-way street and has never been a zero-sum game.A strategy to contain or isolate China might yield some short-term results,but it will not succeed in the longer term,as globalization remains a given in the world of the twentyfirst century.The creation of new knowledge is no longer something that occurs in a single country but is now embedded in a series of new international networks.The Chinese government remains committed to encouraging domestic scientists and engineers to participate actively in such networks and,on many occasions,has indicated a willingness to contribute to the solution of many global challenges through expanded collaboration and cooperation.With its growing S&T capabilities,talented pool of scientists and engineers and increasingly advanced S&T infrastructure,China will continue to be a proactive player in international S&T affairs in the foreseeable future.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mr Wu Yikang,Director General(retired) of the International Cooperation Department of the State Science and Technology Commission of China(now the Ministry of Science and Technology).In 1992,Wu opened a new major titled ‘Science Diplomacy and International Technology Trade’ at Shanghai University of Technology (renamed as Shanghai University in 1994),from which I graduated in 1997.The university selected junior undergraduate students with different science or engineering backgrounds and offered intensive English-language training as well as courses such as international relations,international science and technology exchanges and cooperation,and international trade.In 1992,Wu also established the China Association for International Science and Technology Cooperation and served as its founding director.He published the bookFifty Years of International Science and Technology Cooperation in China(in 1999),which has provided excellent historical records for me to write this article.I also wish to acknowledge Dr Denis Simon,a clinical professor of global business and technology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill,and Professor Zheng Wei of the Beihang University,for their thoughtful suggestions,which have helped to improve this article substantially.

Disclaimer

The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research,authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes

1.In this article,‘science diplomacy’ refers to science and technology diplomacy,which also covers relevant issues in areas such as agriculture,health,the environment and space technology.In China,science and technology diplomacy is considered to be more official,while international science and technology exchanges and cooperation include both intergovernmental and people-to-people endeavours.

2.See full text of the‘Gong Shu’chapter at https://ctext.org/mozi/gong-shu.

3.See more information about Needham at https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/medicine/biochemistrybiographies/joseph-needham.

4.See also information about the talks at https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/lw/88750.htm.

5.See details about the symposium in no.35 ofPeking Reviewat https://www.marxists.org/subject//china/peking-review/1964/PR1964-35.pdf;and no.36 at https://www.marxists.org/subject//china/peking-revie w/1964/PR1964-36.pdf.

6.More information about the Straton model is available at https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/research/projects/straton-model-and-yang-mills-theory.

7.See more information about the discovery of artemisinin at https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2015/tu/biographical/.

8.See also more information about Yuan Longping at https://msa-foundation.org/blog/msa-member/professor-yuan-longping/.

9.See details about the Key Studies Development Project at https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projectsoperations/project-detail/P003478.

10.See more information about the meeting at https://www.cslforum.org/cslf/Events/Beijing2011.

11.More information about the meetings is available at https://twas.org/sites/default/files/nl16_1.pdf;https://twas.org/article/chinas-president-openstwas-conference;and https://www.nature.com/articles/455598a.

12.See the statement of the meeting at http://www.g20chn.org/English/Documents/Current/201611/P02 0161125474288889305.pdf.

13.See more information about the meeting at http://brics-sti.org/?p=news/Meetings.

14.The list may include the National Development and Reform Commission,Ministry of Education,Ministry of Industry and Information Technology(or China National Space Administration,or China Atomic Energy Authority),Ministry of Natural Resources (or State Oceanic Administration),Ministry of Ecology and Environment (or National Nuclear Safety Administration),Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development,Ministry of Transport,Ministry of Water Resources,Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,National Health Commission,Ministry of Emergency Management,State Administration for Market Regulation,China Meteorological Administration,National Energy Administration,National Forestry and Grassland Administration (or National Park Administration),National Railway Administration,and China Earthquake Administration.

15.Different editions of China’s aerospace white papers are available at http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/n6758824/n6758845/index.html.

16.More information about the initiative is available at http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/psa/hsti/chi naspacestation/ao_main.html.

17.The summit was hosted by the US National Academy of Sciences,the US National Academy of Medicine,the Royal Society and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016.

18.Full text of the law is available at http://www.npc.gov.cn/npc/c30834/202112/1f4abe22e8ba49198acdf2398 89f822c.shtml.

19.More information about the report is available at https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/pressreleases/2018/march/section-301-report-chinas-acts.