We're used to China's growing power in almost every field
from trade to geopolitics, and now it's the turn of science.
On January the 3rd, China landed a rover
on the far side of the moon.
It was the first country to do so,
and it signaled China's soaring ambitions in science.
Space is just one area in which they're pouring
many millions of dollars into research.
Genomics, quantum communications, materials,
in all these areas, China is putting a huge effort
into becoming a leader,
and it's about 10 or 15 years before China becomes
a scientific superpower.
China's going to all these efforts
because it knows that a strong science base
is essential if it is to be a first class
economic and military power, but, in the rush to get ahead,
Chinese scientist sometimes take ethical shortcuts.
Scientific theft and copying and fraud is rampant.
Last year He Jiankui, an Associate Professor from Shenzin,
genetically modified two embryos,
without proper regard to their welfare when they were born,
or indeed the welfare of any children
they might go on to have.
At a time of growing competition
between the United States and China, the West is worried
what this growing scientific Chinese power really means.
These worries are real.
It's not just a question of Chinese weapons,
but also of how they might use science
to oppress their own people, for instance.
Already, China's using artificial intelligence
to have real time facial recognition of its people.
What is it to have a scientific superpower
wrapped up in a one-party dictatorship?
Chinese research has a lot to offer the world,
in say, battery technology, or the cures to diseases,
or fundamental discoveries into, for instance, dark matter.
And, the nature of science itself may help
make China a better scientific actor.
For one thing, science is collaborative.
If you try and cut yourself off as a nation,
you'll only hinder your own scientific progress.
If it wants to be cutting edge,
China will benefit from working with other countries,
and that means in order to collaborate and have access,
its scientists will have an incentive to follow the rules.
But, the most interesting question of all
is whether science might end up changing China.
President Xi Jinping is betting that he can have
leading edge science at the same time
as the Communist Party
increases its stranglehold on Chinese society.
But, is he right about that?
Of course, not all scientists are Democrats,
but science itself involves critical thinking,
questioning authority, empiricism,
making judgements about the world,
and all of these things threaten autocrats
who survive by controlling the way that people think.
So, President Xi could face a tough choice.
If he wants his scientists to be cutting edge,
he may have to give them the freedom
and risk the consequences.
In that sense, he's running the biggest experiment of all.