Not this again.<p>The ASPI methodology is to use algorithms to count journal citations to determine who is "ahead". They don't directly examine the state of the technology. That's not to say that the conclusion, at least broadly speaking, is necessarily wrong, but journal citations don't directly translate into implementable technology.<p>It does make for great headlines however, which are free publicity for ASPI and whatever agenda they might be pushing.
I guess there is a "that which is seen vs. that which is not seen" (Bastiat) argument to be made, but government investment into engineering research seems to be a pretty good deal.<p>I saw a quote the other day I liked: "If the rest of the world wants to emulate the US model, they should do as the United States actually did, not as they say they did".<p>- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entrepreneurial_State" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Entrepreneurial_State</a>
Related:<p><i>China Is Rapidly Becoming a Leading Innovator in Advanced Industries</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41562321">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41562321</a>
Can’t beat the technical progress and efficiency that comes from a benevolent dictatorship. China is going to run away with it over the next decade and it’s going to suck because it will normalize whatever hellish authoritarianism they have going on over there.
What this report is telling me is there's fierce competition for relevance in STEM field paper publication across a wide range of interests.<p>That is very good.
Do they?<p>This is about research and papers published - but Chinese academia is amongst the most corrupt in the world, so without the technologies being utilised (or at least peer reviewed by more trustworthy people) this really doesn't mean all that much.<p>Honestly, if the Chinese were that far ahead they wouldn't depend on industrial espionage to the extent that they do.