

China 'to overtake US on science' in two years - Garbage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12885271

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salemh
""But the potential for China to match American output in terms of sheer
numbers in the near to medium term is clear.""

"However the report points out that a growing volume of research publications
does not necessarily mean in increase in quality."

"A sociologist originally from Shanghai, Dr Cao told the BBC: "There are many
millions of graduates but they are mandated to publish so the numbers are
high.

"It will take many years for some of the research to catch up to Western
standards.""

China has a quality issue in plagiarism (sometimes (many would argue)) in
publishing / pushing and borrowing works or undiclosing proper citations for
previous studies.

Quality issues will hold back China, which is more an institution / systemic
top-down problem (several HN discussions on this).

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1732000>

[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8...](http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=china+plagarism+studies#hl=en&sa=X&ei=2n6RTefyL4_WtQOtvriyDg&ved=0CBkQvwUoAQ&q=china+plagiarism+studies&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=a445e974b90b3339)

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bbgm
Depends on how you look at it. The BGI (aka Beijing Genomics Institute) is
already the worlds largest genome sequencing facility, and I know of many US
researchers and companies that are essentially choosing to use the BGI for all
their sequencing needs. While the US will remain the hub for the forefront of
research, the Chinese are moving really fast in building facilities and
training people. Almost everyone at the BGI is really young, but they will get
older, gain more experience and train people. They are producing quality
pipelines and algorithms and publishing some really good papers.

One example, but I am sure there are other, similar, ones.

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briandear
Not going to happen. A lack of IP and patent protections along with an
educational culture that discourages innovation and "standing out" is a
significant barrier to improvements. Plaigarism and outright theivery is
commonplace among academics, students and researchers -- there's little
incentive for scientific discovery. Also, the basic sciences are also lacking
in many areas as well. Scientists know that basic science drives future
innovation. Until China has a paradigm shift in IP attitudes, we'll continue
to find that they will lag behind in innovation. I can't think of any
significant Chinese scientific innovation in the recent past. (Despite patent
filings to the contrary.) Much of their "research" is simply reverse
engineering of others' work. I may be a little inflamatory with this comment,
but I live in Shanghai and see the reality every day. For China to overtake
the US in two years would be like suggesting that Google will declare
bankruptcy next week. It's theoretically possible, but with a micro-
probability.

