China outstrips West in critical technology

China has a stunning lead in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies as Western democracies lose a global race for research output, a security think tank said yesterday.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute tracked defense, space, energy and broadcasting and said its study showed that, in some fields, all of the world's top 10 research institutions were based in China.

The study, funded by the United States State Department, found the US was often second-ranked, although it led in high-performance computing, quantum computing, small satellites and vaccines.

"Western democracies are losing the global technological competition, including the race for scientific and research breakthroughs," the report said.

China had established a "stunning lead in high-impact research" under government programs.

ASPI tracked the most-cited scientific papers, which it said are the most likely to result in patents. China's surprise breakthrough in hypersonic missiles in 2021 would have been identified earlier if China's strong research had been detected, it said.

Over the past five years, China generated 48.49 percent of the world's high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonics, and it hosts seven of the world's top 10 research institutions," it said.

In the fields of photonic sensors and quantum communication, China's research strength could result in it "going dark" to the surveillance of western intelligence.

China was likely to emerge with a monopoly in 10 fields including synthetic biology, as well as electric batteries, 5G and nano manufacturing.