US-China Relations Updates

Couple weeks ago on Tuesday, June 18th, the UK-based Springer Nature group, which publishes the world’s most authoritative scientific journal “Nature”, released a research report stating that China has surpassed the United States and is becoming the newest global science and technology superpower.

On that day, the group released the Nature Index Research Leaders 2024, which measures the latest level of a country’s scientific and technological development.

In this year’s rankings, China’s performance was extremely outstanding and surprising.

Firstly, in the overall rankings of scientific and technological development, the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked first with an absolute advantage. Harvard University of the US ranked second, Germany’s Max Planck Institutes ranked third, and France’s National Center for Scientific Research ranked seventh. The remaining top 10 research institutions are all from China.

Secondly, in terms of the overall level of scientific and technological development in universities, while Harvard University of the US is undisputedly number one, shockingly, 9 out of the top 10 universities are from China according to various technology indicators.

Thirdly, in terms of the quantity of papers published in top international scientific journals and their contributions, the global top 5 are: China, the US, Germany, the UK, and Japan.

Fourthly, in specific disciplines like life sciences, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, health sciences, and physical sciences, which are particularly critical, China and the US are in intense competition.

Based on scientific statistical methods, China now leads the world in chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, and physical sciences by an incomparable advantage, while the US still maintains a strong lead in life sciences and health sciences, though the gap with China is narrowing. The editor-in-chief of Nature Index, Simon Baker, exclaimed that China’s development is truly incredible, and the scientific calculation results have indeed shown this.