appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Ling Xin

Leading scientists and policy experts in China have called for greater support for basic research, saying it is a key to cultural confidence.
At a TED-like event in Beijing on Saturday, astrophysicist Zhang Shuangnan said science and technology were major components of modern civilisation.
“How can Chinese people really be confident in their culture while textbooks are full of the names of foreign scientists, and all the knowledge they grow up learning is from the West?” said Zhang from the Institute of High Energy Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In his talk to SELF – jointly organised by the Chinese Academy of Science’s Computer Network Information Centre and the Science Communication Bureau – he said he was “very envious” watching the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which finally lifted off late last year after two decades of delays and budget overruns.
“I asked myself, what does it take for such an ambitious and risky project to succeed? One thing seems to be sure: our American colleagues have the confidence to take on the job and explore the universe on behalf of all human beings,” Zhang said.


Basic research aims to better understand the fundamentals of how nature works, such as astronomy and mathematics. It often has no immediate applications but can be the basis of scientific and technological innovation.
Chen Kaihua, from the Institutes of Science and Development in Beijing, said China was a latecomer to basic research.
“Basic research has become especially important as China embarks on a new era of innovation,” Chen said.
China has been steadily increasing spending on basic research over the decades, reaching 169.6 billion yuan (US$26.09 billion) in 2021, or about 6 per cent of the total expenditure on research and development.
In comparison, basic research in developed countries accounts for more than 15 per cent of R&D spending.
As part of this research drive, China has developed particle colliders, telescopes, and spacecraft.
For example, it has the world’s biggest and most sensitive radio telescope to look into deep space for evidence of the early universe.
The telescope started operating in 2016, and results from the sophisticated device have been published in top-level academic journals.


But ambitions to spend tens of billions of dollars building what would be the world’s most powerful particle collider have been openly criticised by Chinese-born physics Nobel laureate Chen Ning Yang.
“A super collider is not for today’s China,” Yang wrote in The Intellectual, a WeChat account for the scientific community. “China still struggles with more acute issues such as economic development and environmental protection.”
Chen said China faced practical challenges in pursuing cutting-edge basic science, including its lower level of GDP, which limited its capacity to fund pure research.
Another common challenge was that fundamental breakthroughs had become increasingly difficult to make worldwide due to technological limitations, Chen said.
He said that in a first for China, the central government would soon release its Decadal Planning for Basic Research (2021-2030) for more systematic deployment and funding of basic research.


Chinese drug loberamisal extends stroke treatment window from 6 hours to 2 days

China-Russia space camp in Malaysia opens to youth in Southeast Asia

Neurobiologist Ye Bing says his return to China is not spurred by Michigan campus tragedy

China’s stealth fighters, critical minerals from lithium waste: 7 science highlights

Science

Think bigger and build on basic research, Chinese scientist says

China faces practical challenges in pursuing cutting-edge basic science, including its lower level of GDP.  Photo: Shutterstock

Big or really really big? Chinese scientists measure the largest comet, coming from the edge of the solar system

In January, Man-To Hui of the Macau University of Science and Technology, Taipa Macau, and his colleagues used the Hubble Space Telescope to take five high-resolution photos of C/2014 UN271.Photo: NASA

The nucleus of Comet C/2014 UN271 was isolated from a vast shell of dust and gas surrounding the solid icy nucleus. The photo of the comet was taken by the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 on January 8, 2022. 

This diagram compares the size of the icy, solid nucleus of comet C/2014 UN271 (also known as Bernardinelli-Bernstein) to several other comets. Image: Nasa

Leading Russian scientist says Chinese have stopped cooperating after Ukraine invasion

Russian Academy of Sciences President Alexander Sergeev. Photo: Getty Images

Chinese-born maths genius leaves Harvard to help China become a powerhouse on subject

Yau Shing-tung aims to help China cultivate young, top mathematicians at home. Photo: Jonathan Wong

 Chern Shiing-shen in 2003. Photo: Antony Dickson

Tsinghua University, Beijing. Photo: Shutterstock

News

China


Astrophysicist asks whether Chinese people can really be confident if their textbooks are based on work from the West
But there are concerns about spending billions on major ambitious projects



Astrophysicist asks whether Chinese people can really be confident if their textbooks are based on work from the West.


Think bigger and build on basic research, Chinese scientist says

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Astrophysicist asks whether Chinese people can really be confident if their textbooks are based on work from the West But there are concerns about spending billions on major ambitious projects

Astrophysicist asks whether Chinese people can really be confident if their textbooks are based on work from the West

But there are concerns about spending billions on major ambitious projects