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China Tops Europe In R&D Intensity

Posted by Unknown on from the someone-has-to-do-it dept.

ananyo writes "By pouring cash into science and technology faster than its economy has expanded, China has for the first time overtaken Europe on a key measure of innovation: the share of its economy devoted to research and development. In 2012, China invested 1.98% of its gross domestic product (GDP) into R&D — just edging out the 28 member states of the European Union, which together managed 1.96%, according to the latest estimates of research intensity, to be released this month by the OECD. The figures show that China's research intensity has tripled since 1998, whereas Europe's has barely increased (see graph). The numbers are dominated by business spending, reflecting China's push in the manufacturing and information- and communication-technology industries."

10 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. They produce more.. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They might spend more, but considering all the false papers that come out of China, they're not getting much for their money. They'll continue to pirate our research for the considerable future.

    1. Re: They produce more.. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Suggest that you move straight to Beijing then. Their economy is so awesome because of the large salaries that they pay those slaves to work in their poisonous factories that spew out counterfeit goods to poison our children with.

    2. Re: They produce more.. what? by Luckyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you think China is better at treating its workers, I have land on the Moon to sell you.

      And we're talking research here, not employment. And in that regard, GP is correct - spending does not equal results. China needs some time to develop the proper R&D culture, as it's simply not there yet. It has the spending power, but it lacks efficiency.

    3. Re:They produce more.. what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The thing they seem to export the most of is grad students.

    4. Re: They produce more.. what? by ebno-10db · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Spain, Ireland and a few others were considered models of economic growth and probity before the Lesser Depression. Now of course they're considered "irresponsible" by the same people that lauded them before. Greece is a different story, but put that one aside because it's so different than the others and their economy is so small that it's not of great importance to the EU. Comparing Greece and Spain is absurd.

      Germany, despite its other virtues, is a mercantilist country. No wonder they embraced the Euro. Otherwise when the economies of other European countries went south (more than Germany's) the exchange rates of those countries' currencies would have dropped and Germany would have lost much of their current advantage.

    5. Re:They produce more.. what? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Those who spew racial stereotypes are ignoring the all-important Luddite factor. Europe may spend almost as much money as China on R & D, but given a continent full of people who pride themselves of not buying genetically modified products, what's the point of doing research on genetics? Afterf a year when Germany has just opened a record number of new coal-fired power stations to replace its foregone nuclear capacity, why should Europe keep spending money on that Large Hadron Collider when the discoveries flowing from it will be going into new energy projects to be built in China? In the UK, even the newest bullet train line is running into echo-Luddite opposition. If your company contracts for building rail infrastructure, wouldn't you rather bid in a country whose commissars can just point to a place and say, "The new maglev lines goes there..."?

  2. Meaningless values are meaningless. by rioki · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is it just me or are the given values borderline meaningless. The given values are percent relative to GDP, so they basically indicate the willingness to spend a higher portion of their cash flow for R&D. On an absolute scale this meaningless, a small country could spend 50% of their GDP on R&D and still have less output than a huge nation spending 1%. Then again, raw money value also does not translate to actual scientific progress.

  3. Re:Its worse than that by JazzLad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We used to say this of Japan.

    --
    "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
  4. Re:Its worse than that by Thanshin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fortunately for them, Capitalism doesn't care. If it can be sold, it doesn't matter where it was created, how poorly made it is or how much was the idea stolen.

  5. Finland! by DarthVain · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OK how the fsck is Finland seemingly the best at everything? Seems like whenever there is a top list of something positive about countries Finland is top 5 every time (and Sweden also).

    Going to have to move there or something.