BibTeX
@MISC{Capua98shanghai,china,
author = {Marco Di Capua},
title = {Shanghai, China Technology Innovation in China},
year = {1998}
}
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Abstract
scientists and engineers, and government-sponsored S&T initiatives are accelerating China's development and use of new technology. During my 4 years (1993-1997) as a diplomat-scientist leading the Environment, Science, and Technology section at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, I witnessed stunning economic transformation and growth in China. I also saw the slow but steady realignment of U.S.-China relations, which were severely damaged by the tragedy at Tiananmen Square in 1989. Science and technology, which held a steady course in this turbulent period, played a subtle yet key role in this transformation, growth, and realignment. This transformation and growth, reaching most of urban and rural China, has relieved some of the pain and eased the bitterness of Tiananmen and provided the one-party central government a degree of legitimacy that perhaps it would not otherwise have. When I began my Foreign Service assignment in Beijing, I was still humbled by the complexity of China's history and overwhelmed at first in my attempts to understand the fit and function of science and technology in the governance and the economy of China. As I traveled along the path to understanding, China's cultural continuity forced me to re-explore several centuries of history.1 I would like to share with readers of The Bridge what I learned about how present-day China is engaging technology and innovation. And, when discussing the future, I choose to stress history and process rather than numbers and statistics.2 China's science and technology exchanges with the rest of the world began auspiciously. Inventions that originated in pre-15th century China, like the compass, gunpowder and pyrotechnics, moveable type, and paper making, became pivots in the unfolding of world history and culture. Others, like materials technology associated with porcelain and silk processing and weaving, resulted in products that shaped world trade patterns and enriched world culture for centuries (Needham, 1982).
Keyphrases
china technology innovation moveable type economic transformation material technology world history technology exchange cultural continuity paper making steady realignment key role new technology steady course several century u.s. china relation rural china pre-15th century china present-day china foreign service assignment world culture one-party central government u.s. embassy tiananmen square silk processing turbulent period government-sponsored initiative technology section world trade pattern
