China increasingly challenges American dominance of science

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: June 4, 2018 at 09:05:55 EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] China increasingly challenges American dominance of science
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> China increasingly challenges American dominance of science
> By Ben Guarino, Emily Rauhala and William Wan
> Jun 3 2018
> <https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/china-challenges-american-dominance-of-science/2018/06/03/c1e0cfe4-48d5-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html>
>
> Like many ambitious young scientists, José Pastor-Pareja came to the United States to supercharge his career. At Yale 
> University, he worked in cutting-edge laboratories, collaborated with experts in his field and published in 
> prestigious journals. 
>
> But the allure of America soon began to wear off. The Spanish geneticist struggled to renew his visa and was even 
> detained for two hours of questioning at a New York City airport after he returned from a trip abroad. In 2012, he 
> made the surprising decision to leave his Ivy League research position and move to China. 
>
> “It is an opportunity not many take,” Pastor-Pareja said. But the perks were hard to resist — a lucrative signing 
> bonus, guaranteed research funding, ample tech staff and the chance to build a genetics research center from scratch.
>
> After decades of American dominance, Chinese science is ascendant, and it is luring scientists like Pastor-Pareja 
> away from the United States. Even more China-born scientists are returning from abroad to a land of new scientific 
> opportunity.
>
> The United States spends half a trillion dollars a year on scientific research — more than any other nation on Earth 
> — but China has pulled into second place, with the European Union third and Japan a distant fourth.
>
> China is on track to surpass the United States by the end of this year, according to the National Science Board. In 
> 2016, annual scientific publications from China outnumbered those from the United States for the first time.
>
> “There seems to be a sea change in how people are talking about Chinese science,” said Alanna Krolikowski, a Chinese 
> science expert at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Foreign observers, many of whom were once 
> condescending, now “are rather in awe at what the Chinese policies have accomplished.”
>
> The scientific advances are a small piece of China’s larger ambitions. President Xi Jinping aims to supplant the 
> United States as the world’s economic superpower within three decades. In October, Xi vowed to produce “a world-class 
> army by 2050.”
>
> Meanwhile, China is spending more on infrastructure than the United States or Europe, and the middle class has 
> ballooned — making relocation more attractive.
>
> “More and more people keep coming, that’s for sure,” Pastor-Pareja said. “Right now, China is the best place in the 
> world to start your own laboratory.”
>
> Under the Trump administration, many U.S. researchers say their work has been devalued, threatened by budget cuts and 
> hampered by stricter immigration policies that could deter international collaborations and the influx of talent that 
> has long fueled American innovation.  
>
> “We are in deep doo-doo for two reasons,” said Denis Simon, who has studied Chinese science for 40 years and is the 
> executive vice chancellor of Duke Kunshan University. In his view, the White House, without a science adviser for 
> more than a year, lacks scientific leadership. 
>
> And collaboration between U.S. and Chinese researchers is under threat, he said. Recent restrictions on H-1B visas 
> sent a message to Chinese graduate students that “it’s time to go home when you finish your degree.” Since 1979, 
> China and the United States have maintained a bilateral agreement, the Cooperation in Science and Technology, to 
> jointly study fields like biomedicine and high-energy physics. In the past the agreement was signed as a routine 
> matter, Simon said, but that’s no longer the case. 
>
> Pastor-Pareja, the geneticist who gave up Yale for Beijing, specializes in studies of cell biology using fruit flies 
> — Drosophila melanogaster.
>
> The field is struggling in the United States, Pastor-Pareja said, as funding has declined. In China, there are now 30 
> drosophila laboratories in Beijing, he said — more than in either Boston or San Francisco — and scientists have begun 
> meeting every two months to share their latest work. 
>
> “At this rate, China may soon eclipse the U.S.,” Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) warned at a January congressional hearing 
> on the state of American science, “and we will lose the competitive advantage that has made us the most powerful 
> economy in the world.”
>
> [snip]
>
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