The fourth national science and technology conference that started in Beijing yesterday marked a significant step by the central leadership to reorient the nation to a path of sustainable development based on home- grown scientific and technological breakthroughs.
We do not have to subscribe to economic nationalism to see that the strategic shift is necessary. For a quarter of a century, the mainland's growth - to paraphrase American economist Paul Krugman - has been driven more by perspiration than inspiration. Thanks to massive inflows of foreign investment in manufacturing, the mainland has become the world's largest factory, capable of making almost every conceivable product. The strategy has succeeded in driving growth and raising living standards.
But that growth has come at a high price, notably in environmental degradation. That strategy has made the nation heavily dependent on importation of raw materials and fossil fuels, on foreign markets for its manufactured products and on foreign technologies for producing them. For any country, that is an unsustainable formula for economic growth.
As President Hu Jintao noted in his address to the conference, innovation is the core of national competitiveness, but real core technologies cannot be purchased and have to be achieved by innovation. Even though the central government has long had a policy of importing advanced technologies, the most that it can hope to get is the latest equipment. Actual transfers of key technologies have been few and far between. For example, the mainland has become the world's largest manufacturer of DVD players. But the industry's profit margin is low because it has had to pay foreign patent holders for every player shipped.
Mr Hu referred to five areas in which China should concentrate its efforts to achieve scientific and technological breakthroughs. As an energy-hungry country, the highest priority has rightly been accorded to developing technologies for managing energy and water resources and combating environmental protection. The other four areas are information technology, biotechnology, materials technology and aerospace and aviation. These are critical sectors to sustaining the human race on an increasingly crowded and resource-depleted planet.
A key component of this national strategy is nurturing a sizeable team of world-class scientists. In this connection, it is gratifying to see that a professor at the University of Hong Kong, Fan Sheung-tat, is one of two scientists who received a first-class award yesterday for their scientific innovations. Professor Fan and his team were honoured for their success in pioneering a new form of liver transplant. Four other Hong Kong scientists received second-class awards. Their outstanding results are a demonstration of Hong Kong's research capabilities and how this city and its scientists could contribute to national development.