The technology race between the major powers USA, EU and China is taking on worrying proportions in the eyes of the OECD.
Technologies are the stuff that prosperity and power are made of. So it should come as no surprise that the three largest economic and power blocs – USA, Europe and China – account for more than two thirds of all investments in research and development. The clear number one is the USA with a research quota of 3.46 percent of the GDP; China follows in second place (2.45 percent), which overtook the EU (2.15 percent) eight years ago. The situation is similar with patent applications, and China is now even leading in terms of the number of researchers and scientific publications.
China has acquired increasingly sophisticated technological capabilities over the past two decades and is already a market leader in areas such as 5G, batteries, processing of rare earths or photovoltaics, experts from the OECD explain in the recently published “Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2023”. This catching-up process heralded “an era of intensified strategic competition”.
There has always been competition for the best technologies in human history. At the same time, however, it was also clear that sharing knowledge is beneficial for everyone involved. A balance was thus established between the two poles of competition and cooperation.
But as the OECD notes, this balance is currently shifting completely. On the one hand, the current crises (Corona, Ukraine, etc.) made it clear how dependent all major powers are on other parts of the world; Therefore, measures to increase autonomy, security and technological sovereignty are being taken everywhere – from sheer protectionism to strategic investments in (military and civilian) key technologies and in domestic production. On the other hand, the increasing rivalry between the USA and China is causing louder and louder crunching in the framework of the world system.
The OECD has now been able to document this development in figures: after decades of growth, the number of joint publications by researchers from the USA and China has been declining again for three years. This worries the experts: They fear that this decoupling could lead to an overall weakening of activities in science and technology – and this just “at a time when global challenges require international cooperation more than ever”.
The author headed the research department of the “Presse” and is a science communicator at the AIT.
meinung@diepresse.com
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(“Die Presse”, print edition, April 2nd, 2023)
