China to emerge as a scientific, technical leader in world: Nobel Prize winner
( 2001-09-17 15:04 ) (8 )

Nobel Physics Prize winner Chen-Ning Yang said on Monday that China's scientific and technical level will surely rise to the top of the world by the year 2030 or 2040.

He made the remark at the opening ceremony of the Sixth World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention in this capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

He said, "China today still lags behind advanced countries in terms of its hi-tech development, many people have concluded that China is not good at science and technology. This is a view that is completely wrong."

He said, Modern science and technology were introduced into China only in the 20th century. Within a time span of just one century, through efforts by merely a few generations of people, China had started from real zero to attain the level of being able to launch and recover its Shenzhou Spacecraft, an unprecedented rapid development.

"I argued that there were some basic intrinsic factors for such rapid development of science and technology in China. These factors are now being further strengthened and consolidated in the 21st century," He said.

Yang, a professor with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Beijing-based Tsinghua University, also predicted the development of science and technology in the 21st century.

He said, the focus of scientific and technical development in the coming 30-40 years will continue to shift towards technology, adding the following fields will see the most rapid development of application study in the coming 30-40 years: extensive application of chips, medical science and medicines, and biotechnology.

Besides, the trend of trade globalization will continue, especially after China joins the World Trade Organization. Trade globalization has become prevalent today because of the development of science and technology, he added.