The latest research finds that Chinese scientists are rapidly increasing their leadership in international cooperation projects. According to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Chinese scientists have taken leadership roles in more than half of Sino-British cooperation projects and are expected to achieve the same level of leadership in cooperation with Europe and the United States in the next few years.
A research team led by the University of Chicago in the United States analyzed data from nearly 6 million papers and innovatively used two indicators: "leadership share" and "leadership premium" to measure the right to speak in scientific research. Data show that in Sino-US cooperation, China's leadership share has jumped from 30% in 2010 to 45% in 2023. However, there are still obvious gaps in key areas such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors, and it is expected that it will take until 2030 to catch up.
It is worth noting that there are significant field differences in this improvement of scientific research leadership. Although progress has been rapid in the field of basic scientific research, it still faces a "stuck" dilemma in core technology areas that require disruptive innovation. Some experts bluntly said that this structural imbalance is a key challenge for China to move from a big scientific research country to a powerful country.
The study also revealed a counter-intuitive conclusion: If the United States stops cooperation with China in key areas such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing, its own scientific research progress will suffer heavy losses. This shows that the global scientific research ecosystem has formed a pattern of deep interdependence, and unilateral decoupling will only lead to a lose-lose situation.
This study breaks our traditional understanding of scientific research leadership. It not only demonstrates the substantial improvement of China's scientific research strength, but also reveals the core bottlenecks that still need to be overcome in building a scientific and technological power. In a critical period of restructuring the global scientific research landscape, how to balance independent innovation and international cooperation will become a decisive factor affecting the future landscape of scientific and technological competition.