Science reporter Holly Chik investigates Chinese-Thai collaboration in fundamental science and cutting-edge technology. As part of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s influence on Bangkok spans everything from smart city AI to fusion energy. In the first part of the series , she looks at efforts to work together on the frontiers of physics. Thai physicist Chayanit Asawatangtrakuldee is part of a 700-strong team of international scientists behind the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory in China – which is set to become the world’s largest detector of neutrinos. To catch the tiny, ghostlike particles that pass through our bodies by the trillions every second, the global team is setting up the US$300 million Juno facility 700 metres (3,000 feet) underground in southern China. It is due to commence operation in June. China, Italy lead global hunt for ghostlike neutrinos as US takes own track It has taken more than one country to build the experiment – a plastic sphere 13 storeys tall that will be filled with 20,000 tonnes of a special liquid and immersed in 35,000 tonnes of pure water. “We helped the magnetic field to be installed inside the Juno experiment when they started to study how to cancel out the Earth’s magnetic field [which interferes with the detection of neutrinos],” Chayanit, from Chulalongkorn University, said in an interview in Bangkok. The Chulalongkorn team also worked on a device that is part of the detector used to increase the signal given off by the particles, which is called a photomultiplier. Juno has nearly 700 members from 78 institutions around the world, with about 300 from outside China. Italy is the project’s biggest international partner, with more than 80 researchers on board. Germany, France and Russia have also contributed equipment or electronics, and each has dozens of researchers involved. “Our country is a small country,” Chayanit said. “We cannot build it on our own and we don’t have space to host it. We need to have international cooperation for big projects.” Scientists find 3 ‘exotic’ particles as Large Hadron Collider spins up again She also works with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) which operates the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. The US$9 billion Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland consists of a 27km (16.78-mile) ring of superconducting magnets. Thailand spent 1.14 per cent of its gross domestic product on research and development in 2019. The global average that year was 2.33 per cent. China was Thailand’s fourth-biggest science collaborator after the United States, Japan and Britain in the past five years, according to data provided by Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scientific literature. The number of scientific publications with Thai and Chinese co-authors rose from nearly 900 in 2017 to 1,856 last year, it said. They mainly collaborated on research in medicine, physics and astronomy as well as agricultural and biological sciences. Anders Karlsson, vice-president of global strategic networks (Asia-Pacific) at Elsevier, said Thailand was a key part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative , citing a meeting last month at which President Xi Jinping and Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha agreed to expand investment in hi-tech industries, including the green economy and artificial intelligence. “With the Belt and Road Initiative, China is seeking to strengthen ties also in higher education and science,” he said, adding that the Chinese Academy of Sciences had set up its first overseas innovation cooperation centre in Bangkok, and around 30 Confucius centres had been established in Thailand. The Belt and Road Initiative is a globe-spanning trade-development project that has invested in infrastructure projects, including roads, ports, airports, railways and power stations – mostly in developing countries. China’s sprawling network of Confucius Institutes – government-backed soft-power outposts – has received widespread attention in recent years amid accusations from the West that it disseminates propaganda overseas. Thailand is also home to China’s first overseas vocational centre, named after master carpenter and inventor Lu Ban , which opened six years ago. In 2019, the Lu Ban High-Speed Railway Institute was founded in northeastern Thailand to train railway technicians. Infographic: CERN’s Large Hadron Collider “The US naturally sees this as a development of some concern,” Karlsson said. “Thailand has generally had close ties to the US and is a strategic partner for the US in the region, still the largest collaborator in science.” The dean of science at Chulalongkorn University, Polkit Sangvanich, said taking part in international projects was key for Thai scientists. “We have people, and we have the knowledge,” he said. “But it is difficult to initiate or create big projects on our own. It’s impossible, even for one big country.” Polkit said machines like those involved in the Juno and CERN experiments were “difficult to install everywhere because they’re really expensive”. “We’re going to have to share,” he said. He said Thailand’s Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn had been the driving force behind a lot of Chinese-led projects that Thai scientists took part in, including the Juno and CERN experiments and expeditions to the South Pole. “If she was not the starting point [for international collaborations], it would have been difficult for us to make our way into them,” he said. Chayanit said that when there were new projects, collaborations or experiments around the world, the princess would visit them and ask whether Thai scientists could get involved. Thailand’s long-time Sinophile Princess Sirindhorn to receive China’s Friendship Medal “When she comes back to Thailand, she looks around universities for experts in the fields and brings them to the projects,” Chayanit said. “Every year we need to report the progress of each project. It does not just stop there. She is still interested and follows up.” Princess Sirindhorn’s relationship with China goes back almost four decades, including work to promote Sino-Thai relations in fields such as diplomacy and the arts, and Thai and Chinese officials have long said the two countries “are as close as one family”. “We always treat Chinese people as friends and colleagues,” said Chayanit, who earned her PhD in elementary particle physics from Peking University in 2015. “We never compete. We work together, enjoy together.” Polkit echoed that sentiment, saying Chinese scientists were “open-minded” about having Thai peers join their projects. “We can tag along very well,” he said. “There’s no point in being a competitor. We become a partner and a network. I think it’s better this way.”
