Although the US leads the world in global research related to high-performance computing, quantum computing, small satellites and vaccines, China “has a stunning lead in 37 of 44 critical and emerging technologies,” according to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). The Chinese Academy of Sciences, a government research body, ranked first or second in most of the 44 technologies tracked, which covered defense, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials and quantum technology. The ASPI study showed that, in some fields, all of the world's top 10 research institutions are based in China.
Tracking cited scientific papers likely to result in patents, the ASPI study revealed that “over the past five, China generated 48.49% of the world's high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonics, and it hosts seven of the world's top 10 research institutions.” The ASPI report also tracked national talent flows of researchers and said China was likely to emerge with a monopoly in 10 fields including electric batteries, 5G, nano manufacturing and synthetic biology. According to a news story on the report from Reuters , in the fields of photonic sensors and quantum communication, China's research strength “could result in it going dark to the surveillance of western intelligence.”
