Striving to Create a New Horizon of International Science and Technology Exchanges and Cooperation

Hou Jianguo

Indispensable to the development of science and technology innovation, the international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology serve as an important way to strengthen the exchanges and mutual learning among world civilisations and address the shared challenges faced globally.It was stressed in the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China that China “will expand science and technology exchanges and cooperation with other countries, cultivate an internationalised environment for research, and create an open and globally-competitive innovation ecosystem”,which clearly defined the direction of efforts and objectives for international science and technology exchanges and cooperation in the current and future period.We should conscientiously implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, always adhere to the concept of openness, innovativeness and win-win cooperation, promote in-depth open cooperation on all fronts, and strive to break a new ground for international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology.

CHINA HAS ACHIEVED A HISTORIC PROGRESS IN THE QUALITY OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGES AND COOPERATION SINCE THE 18TH NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (the CPC), under the scientific guidance of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s series of important statements on science and technology innovation as well as Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy,China has carried out in-depth international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology, actively participated in global governance of science and technology innovation, taken new steps in opening up and cooperation in science and technology, and reached a new stage of international development, driving China’s science and technology undertakings to make historic achievements and take historic changes, and meanwhile injecting indispensable scientific and technological power for building a community with a share future for mankind.

We have actively expanded the sphere of international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology,and have deeply integrated into the global network of innovation.General Secretary Xi Jinping once pointed out that international cooperation on science and technology is a general trend.The more we face blockade and suppression, the more we must not engage in self-enclosure and self-isolation, but rather implement a more open and inclusive, mutually beneficial international science and technology cooperation strategy, and integrate more proactively into the global innovation network.Only through deep integration into the global innovation network can we strengthen the exchanges and mutual learning with the fine civilisational fruits of the entire mankind in cooperation and interaction, and promote the openness and sharing of innovation resources in mutual support of relative advantages.Over the years,many of China’s important scientific and technological achievements have been published openly and shared with the world, with the number of highly cited papers accounted for 27.3% of the global share from 2011 to 2021, ranking second in the world, contributing significantly to enriching the treasure house of human knowledge.According to statistics, China has established scientific and technological partnerships with over 160 countries and regions, joined more than 200 international organisations and multilateral mechanisms, and conducted inter-governmental joint research projects with more than 60 countries, regions, international organisations and multilateral mechanisms.The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has also given full play to its advantage in cooperation as a national-level institution, signing cooperation agreements with 138 research institutions, universities, enterprises and international science and technology organisations from 64 countries and regions.The CAS has materialised the important commitment made by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the United Nations General Assembly by establishing the International Research Centre of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals and starting the delivery of public science and technology goods to the world.We have also built ten overseas centres for scienceand education cooperation, and have taken the lead in launching China’s first comprehensive international science organisation, namely the Alliance of International Science Organisations in the Belt and Road Region, which has attracted 67 member organisations from 48 countries.

On September 6, 2021, the International Research Center for Big Data for Sustainable Development, the world’s first international scientific research institution to serve the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with big data, was established in Beijing.

We have striven to take advantage of science and technology to address the common challenges faced by mankind, demonstrating China’s sense of mission to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.China should participate deeply in global science and technology governance, contribute Chinese wisdom and make efforts to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasised that China should deeply participate in global science and technology governance, contribute Chinese wisdom,and strive to build a community with a shared future for mankind.Human beings live in the same global village,and all countries are closely linked by the shared interests and future.Only by deepening global exchanges and cooperation on science and technology and jointly addressing the challenges facing humanity, can we benefit people of all countries while achieving better development for our respective countries.Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has deeply implemented the Belt and Road science and technology innovation action plan, the international science and technology innovation cooperation programme for carbon neutrality and the international scientific and technological anti-pandemic cooperation action.We continue to promote science and technology exchanges and cooperation with other countries, contributing China’s wisdom and providing China’s solutions to major global issues and science and technology challenges.The CAS has given full play to its advantages by strengthening exchanges and cooperation on science and technology with relevant countries and regions in terms of platform building, programme organisation and talent training, so as to collaboratively address major risks and challenges.We have launched a project to expand cooperation in science and education among developing countries and an action plan for science and technology cooperation along the Belt and Road, helping related countries to solve scientific and technological problems in cash crop cultivation,ecological diversity conservation and drinking water safety, making positive contributions to the improvement of local people’s livelihood and the promotion of sustainable development.Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the CAS has made active efforts to share genomic data to the rest of the world for more than 18 billion times, taken the initiative to share the tocilizumab treatment regimen, and joined scientists around the world to contribute to the fight against the pandemic.

We have adhered to both “bringing in” and “going out”, and achieved flourishing activities for international talent exchanges.As General Secretary Xi Jinping once pointed out, rivers and seas can only become what they are when numerous, tiny streams are embraced.When opening up to the outside world, a country must first promote the opening up of people,especially talents.In today’s world,the landscape of talent competition is undergoing profound changes,presenting distinctive features such as prominent contradictions between supply and demand, shifting competitionfocus, accelerating spatial concentration and high frequency of cross-border mobility, etc.Talent work is facing both historic opportunities and severe challenges.Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party Central Committee, upholding the concept that talent is the primary resource, has set the strategic direction of talent-led development, introduced a number of policies and measures to attract talent and intelligence, actively build international science and technology cooperation platforms for various innovation subjects and innovative talents, and promoted the vigorous development of activities for international talent exchanges in various fields and at various levels.Meanwhile, we have actively supported scientific and technological talents to go abroad and carry out highlevel international academic exchanges and cooperation through establishing overseas science and education institutions, exchange visits, joint projects,etc.With the cumulative number of Chinese students studying abroad reaching 3.21 million, the past decade has witnessed the significant improvement of the diversification and internationalisation of talent cultivation.The past decade has also seen the steady increase of nationality diversification of CAS’s talent team, with the proportion of overseas personnel accounting for about 3% of the research staff of the Academy.A large number of scientists hold important leadership positions in the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, the International Council for Science and other international organisations.The CAS boasts 128 foreign academicians, coming from 24 countries including the United States,Britain, France and Germany, who have made prominent contributions to promoting the science and technology exchanges and cooperation between China and other countries.

On April 12,2023, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST)set a new world record, successfully realizing steady-state high confinement mode plasma operation for 403 seconds.

We have actively participated in and organised major international science and technology cooperation projects,resulting in the emerging of various types of cooperation and innovative achievements.Since the 18th National Congress of CPC, China’s science and technology exchanges and cooperation with other countries have continuously deepened.Chinese scientists have made significant contributions to major international science and technology cooperation projects, including the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) programme,the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope (SKA), the Daya Bay Nuclear Reactor Neutrino Experiment, the Second Qinghai-Tibet Plateau Scientific Research and black hole detection.For example, as one of the seven member countries, China has undertaken nearly 10% of the R&D tasks for ITER’s magnet support, calibration field coil system and magnet feeder system, and has accomplished and successfully delivered the heaviest and most difficult superconducting magnet coil in the world.For another example, more than 300 scientists from over 30 countries,including the United States, Germany,Sweden, the United Kingdom, Nepal and Pakistan, participated directly or indirectly in the CAS-led second comprehensive scientific expedition to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, worked together with their Chinese counterparts to score a series of important achievements and progress.The third example is that, following the first photograph of a black hole taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, an international research team led by researchers from CAS Shanghai Observatory has recently published a panoramic photograph of a black hole taken at the New Channel using 16 observatories around the world.This is the first time that the shadow of a black hole and its surrounding accretion and jet formation regions are presented in the same photograph,providing an important reference for a more comprehensive understanding of the physical processes surrounding the black hole.According to statistics, the years between 2013 and 2022 witnessed an increase of the number of Chinese papers on international science and technology cooperation from 61,000 to 156,000, and that of its share in the global number grew from 14.1% to 23.4%, reflecting the positive effects of Chinese scientists’ participation in international science and technology exchanges and cooperation.

A DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES AND COOPERATION ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Opening up to the outside world is China’s basic state policy, and openness and cooperation are the defining characteristics of contemporary China.The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to international science and technology exchanges and cooperation, and General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that science and technology are universal and contemporary.We should adhere to planning and promoting science and technology innovation with a global perspective,strengthen international cooperation on science and technology innovation in all aspects, and proactively integrate into the global science and technology innovation network.We need to raise our political stance,deepen our learning and understanding, and effectively enhance our ideological, political, and operational consciousness of doing a good job in international science and technology exchanges and cooperation.

Expanding international science and technology exchanges and cooperation is an inevitable choice to achieve high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology.It is noted in the Report to the 20th National Congress of the CPC that China’s grand goal is to join the ranks of the world’s most innovative countries by 2035, with great self-reliance and strength in science and technology.We should accurately grasp the dialectical unity between selfreliance and cooperation, and deeply understand that high-level international exchanges and cooperation are necessary for science and technology self-reliance, while self-reliance serves as prerequisites for equal exchange and cooperation.Self-reliance and strength in science and technology are not about going against globalization, nor about fighting alone, nor is it about all technological achievements needing to “start from scratch”.Instead, we need to cooperate with all parties based on mutually beneficial policy, and achieve great self-reliance and strength in science and technology in opening up and cooperation.China has always attached great importance to science and technology exchanges and cooperation with other countries at different stages of development since the founding of the PRC, learning the advanced science and technology from other countries with great enthusiasm and enhancing its science and technology innovation capacity through exchanges and cooperation, while also strives to contribute China’s strength to the development of science and technology.With the continuous expansion of the breadth and depth of international science and technology exchanges and cooperation, China’s technological innovation ability and development level are also constantly improving, gradually turning from a follower and learner in the international science and technology system to an important participant, contributor, and even leader in some fields.Aimed at accelerating the process of achieving great self-reliance and strength in science and technology as well as building a strong country in science and technology, China must strengthen science and technology exchanges and cooperation with other countries, so as to promote innovative development through exchanges and mutual learning.

Expanding international science and technology exchanges and cooperation is an objective need for adapting to the development trend of science and technology innovation as well as the law of paradigm shift in scientific research.Nowadays, a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation is deepening, and the paradigms of scientific research are undergoing profound changes.The flow of innovation factors is unprecedentedly active globally, and the breadth, depth, speed,and accuracy of technological innovation are historically unprecedented.With the development of science and technology entering the great science era, the level of a country’s scientific and technological innovation capability largely depends largely on its ability to integrate and utilise global innovation resources, and collaborative innovation, open innovation and cooperative innovation have become common choices in global innovation strategies.According to statistics, the share of papers produced jointly by researchers from different countries has increased from 11% in 2000 to 24% in 2022.Over the past decade, more than a third of the achievements in annual“World Top 10 Science and Technology Progress News” selected by academicians of the CAS and the Chinese Academy of Engineering were made through cross-border cooperation.To seize the historic opportunity of the new-round scientific and technological revolution and industrial change,we must deeply grasp the current major trends and directions in science and technology development, follow the trend of the times, actively plan and promote science and technology innovation from a global perspective,deeply participate in global innovation networks, gather more high-quality science and technology innovation resources, and continuously enhance our own science and technology innovation capabilities in the global development of science and technology.

Expanding international exchanges and cooperation in science and technology is a powerful means of working together to address com-mon global challenges.Today’s world witnesses rising global challenges in food security, energy security, cyber security, public health, climate change and other fields.General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out that international cooperation, openness and sharing are needed more than ever before if the mankind is to solve the common challenges in development.Science and technology innovation is a key variable in solving global problems, from tackling individual health problems to improving the overall living environment of mankind, all of which cannot be achieved without cross-country and cross-territory cooperation and long-term joint research by scientists from different countries.As a responsible major country, China will always firmly advocate peace, development, cooperation and win-win results, adhere to the spirit and concept of openness with solidarity and tolerance, continue to deepen international exchanges and cooperation in science and technology, work together with other countries to explore ways and means for solving global problems, make more achievements to benefit people from all countries, and strive to make the contribution of Chinese scientists to the progress of human civilization.

GIVE A BETTER PLAY TO THE ROLE OF NATIONAL STRATEGIC SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FORCES AS THE BACKBONE OF INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES AND COOPERATION ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The national strategic science and technology forces represent the highest level of national science and technology innovation and are the backbone of the national innovation system.We should study and understand the important instructions from General Secretary Xi Jinping on international science and technology exchanges and cooperation as well as the deployment requirements of the CPC Central Committee, deeply understand the importance and urgency of strengthening international science and technology cooperation under the new circumstances from the strategic height of accelerating the building of a strong science and technology nation and better supporting the building of a modernised country, adhere to the international vision, actively explore new modes and initiatives of international science and technology cooperation, and accelerate the building of a new high ground for international science and technology exchanges and cooperation.

We should carry out differentiated and distinctive science and technology exchanges and cooperation, and strive to build an all-round, multi-level, wideranging and focused network of international partners.Adhering to the principles of openness, inclusiveness,mutual benefit and win-win result, we will continuously consolidate, deepen and expand partnership with the topclass research institutions, universities and enterprises in the world with more open thinking and measures.We will continuously enrich the forms and content of innovation cooperation,search for the maximum common denominator around science and technology innovation issues of common concern in response to the actual situation of different countries and institutions, focus on areas where we want to cooperate and can cooperate, build new cooperation funding mechanisms, and carry out high-level practical exchanges and cooperation.Taking the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative as an opportunity and focusing on the strategic needs of high-quality development of the Belt and Road, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the sustainable development needs of partner states, we will continue to deepen the science and technology cooperation with the Belt and Road countries.We will participate in multilateral cooperation mechanisms in a deep-going way, such as important international science and technology organizations as well as international major science programs, and continuously enhance China’s participation and influence in high-level academic organizations, major international cooperation projects and international industrial innovation chains.

We will create a more open international environment for the talent development, and accelerate the building of a major talent centre and innovation highland in the world.We will unceasingly optimise the ecology of international science and technology cooperation, gather more first-class international talents through broader career platforms and more flexible ways and means, and attract more outstanding international students and young international scholars to China for study, exchanges and training.We will speed up the building of a service and guarantee system for international talents, create a better policy environment and bring more convenience to help solve problems of international talents in their work and life, so as to ensure that they come,stay and work well.Meanwhile, we should strengthen the training of local talents for international prospects, and support and encourage researchers to go out for higher and more effective international exchanges and cooperation through exchange visits and collaborative research.

We will organise the implementation of a number of key brand projects for international science and technology exchanges and cooperation, and enhance international academic influence in an all-round way.We should give full play to the advantages of national strategic science and technology forces in terms of strong scientificresearch, concentration of high-level science and technology talents and concentration of major science and technology infrastructures, targeting the world’s frontier scientific problems and the scientific problems behind major economic and social development challenges, taking the lead in initiating a number of international grand science programmes and projects, and establishing an operational management mechanism for multilateral science and technology programmes that is in line with international standards.We will strengthen science and technology communication in international arena, using all media channels to disseminate China’s innovation achievements and tell the story of Chinese innovation.A number of brand academic conferences with leading power in the field will be developed,and more brand activities with international influence and academic reputation will be forged.We will strengthen the development of top-class brand academic journals and build a digital platform for academic publications,so as to provide more channels and carriers for international academic exchanges and mutual learning.

Efforts will be made to cultivate a professional team for international science and technology cooperation,forming a governance system and governance capabilities that are compatible with high-level international cooperation.We will actively explore and select science and technology talents with rich overseas academic experience, extensive network and strong ability for international cooperation,and support them to better carry out international science and technology cooperation.We will strengthen the echelon of the talent pool for international organisation positions, making their service in international organisations an important indicator for talent evaluation, and provide them with necessary support for working in international organisations.We will increase our support for young talents,fully stimulate their enthusiasm for international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology, and gradually build up an international friends circle during their academic advancement.Efforts will be made to enhance the capacity of managing and supporting international science and technology exchanges and cooperation through cultivating a team of experienced managing personnel who are familiar with both internal and external situations.

Efforts should be made to strengthen the awareness of compliance, security and risk prevention so as to continuously improve the standardisation of international exchanges and cooperation on science and technology.We should properly handle the relationship between cooperation and safety,consolidate the main responsibility, refine the institutional procedure, securerisk checkpoints and maintain the bottom line of cooperation.We will conduct in-depth investigation and research, analyse risks of various types in international cooperation, improve the international cooperation security system, and enhance all mechanisms for security prevention and emergency response.We should strengthen capacity building for policy dissemination,enhance risk prevention and control capabilities in intellectual property rights, talent introducing, public opinion response, data sharing, biosecurity and cyber security, and ensure the healthy and orderly development of international science and technology exchanges and cooperation.

The CAS, as an important part of the national strategic science and technology force, has been an active pioneer and important practitioner in China’s science and technology exchanges and cooperation with other countries.Over the past 70 years since its founding, the CAS has given full play to its distinct advantages and has made positive contributions to China’s science and technology exchanges and cooperation with other countries in different periods of its history, as well as injecting constant impetus to its own reform, innovation and development.Embarking on a new journey in the new era, the CAS will plan and promote international science and technology exchanges and cooperation at a higher starting point and higher level with a strong sense of political responsibility and historical mission, and continuously make new and greater innovative contributions to building China into a scientific and technological power at an early date and to support the building of a human community with a shared future.