"The Role and Contributions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to China's Science and Technology Development"

Lu Yongxiang, President
Chinese Academy of Sciences

Hong Kong, January 4, 2001

CAS' Founding and Building Up (1949-1955)

According to "The Organization Law of the Central Government of the People's Republic of China" approved on September 27, 1949, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was set up under the administration of the State Council, as a government institution for the management of the nation's scientific research. On October 19, 1949, the Central Government appointed Mr. GUO Mo-ruo, a well-known public figure, writer and archeologist, as the first President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On October 31, 1949, MAO Ze-dong, Chairman of China Central Government, issued the official seal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to Mr. GUO Mo-ruo, President of CAS. On Nov 1, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was officially established.

In March of 1954, the Central Government described its basic policy for science development and, for the first time, put forward the principle of building up the national scientific research system with the CAS at its core and also including institutions of higher education and other research organizations of industries. The instruction is as follows: "The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the national center for scientific research and focuses on the scientific research within its own institutions. In addition, it should also have a close contact with the scientific researchers around the country, and help coordinate the scientific research of various sectors."

The Mission of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was to:

• Set up the orientations of scientific research;
• Train and aid in the proper allocation of academic professionals;
• Restructure and strengthen scientific research institutions.

During this period as part of its mission CAS was successful in:

• Carrying out surveys of the academic professionals and research institutions in the country, reorganizing and setting up research institutions, drawing up the scientific research programs of the country.
• Encouraging and helping overseas Chinese scientists to return home. There were 3 return-home upsurges of overseas Chinese scientists in 50', among those returned scientists, LI Si-guang, ZHAO Zhong-yao, GE Ting-sui, WU Wen-jun, QIAN Xue-sen, GUO Yong-huai, WANG De-zhao, LIN Lan-ying and many others, became the founders and pioneers in many research fields in China.
• Undertaking important S&T research projects for the construction of the New China: natural resources survey, many major technological research projects in industry and agriculture, and crucial contributions to the projects such as the construction of iron and steel industry in Baotou and Wuhan, the development of Chinese antibiotic industry, the harnessing and exploitation of the Yellow River, and the cultivation of rubber trees.

In 1955, the Academic Divisions of CAS were founded and the first group of 233 CAS members was elected.

In 1956, the Campaign of "Marching towards Modern Science" was announced by the central government with the words: "The Chinese Academy of Sciences should be reinforced with great efforts and be the driving force for the upgrading of the national scientific research and for the training of younger academic professionals".

Finally during this period, the 12-year Foresight Program for the Development of S&T was formulated.

• Under the direct leadership of the central government;
• Thousands of scientists involved in the formulation of the program;
• 13 areas and 57 key projects identified, disciplinary development programs
• basic research drawn up, including those emerging areas of atomic energy, semi-conductors, electronic computer;
• A great foundation and far-reaching impact for China' S&T development.

Exploration & Development (1956 -1966)

The Four Urgent Measures proposal ("Urgent Measures to the Development of Computing Technology, Semi-conductors Technology, Radio Electronics, and Automation & Remote Controlling Technology") was submitted to the central government by the scientists during the formulation of the foresight program.

This proposal called for:

• Great attention from the central government;
• Responsibility on CAS to coordinate and implement the program;
• A solid foundation for the development of Computing Technology, Semi-conductors Technology, Radio Electronics, and Automation in China;
• Essential S&T supports to the "atomic bomb, carrier missile and satellite" development programs, and to the modernization of industry, agriculture and national defense.

Chairman Mao and the central government made the decision in mid 50' to develop atomic bomb for the sake of national defense after consulting with the scientists. CAS was fully engaged in the program with its research strength.

In 1956, Prof. Qian Xuesen, Director of CAS Institute of Mechanics, made a proposal to develop missile technology, "Proposal on the Establishment of China's Aerospace Industry of National Defense", which was approved by the central government. CAS participated in the program with its built up strength such as in mechanic research.

In 1958, with the proposal from Prof. Zhao Jiuzhang, Director of CAS Institute of Geophysics, the central government agreed to develop man-made satellite with CAS as the core research force. CAS, once again, played an important role with its integrated research strength and laid a solid foundation for the development of China's space technology.

The successful results of this program are as follows:

• China successfully tested its atomic bomb in 1964.
• China successfully launched its carrier missile in 1966.
• China successfully tested its first Hydrogen Bomb in 1967.
• China successfully launched its first satellite in 1970.

In addition to CAS' contribution to the development of the atomic bomb, missile and satellite programs, there were also significant achievements in many key research areas related to national economy and defense, such as the exploitation of Daqing Oil Field, fluorine organic plastics, cis-polybutadience, high power microwave tube, astronomical telescope, large scale theodolite, silicon semi-conductor devices. Other major contributions included the first electronic computer in China (1959) and the first atomic reactor in China (1958).

This period is considered to be CAS' "Decade of Glory" and laid a solid foundation for China's further S&T development.

Ten Years of Turmoil (1966 -1976)

The scientific research of CAS suffered profound damages during the "Cultural Revolution" and its budget of 1967 was only 16% of that in 1965. In extreme hardship during the period, CAS scientists, based on their research in the past 10 years, still achieved some high level results, such as: 109C computer, "the meritorious computer" to the development of atomic bomb, missile and satellite, synthesized Artemisia apiacea and synthesized Artemether, which is the first worldly acknowledged synthesized drug from China and is listed by WHO as the No.1 anti-malaria drug.

In 1972, Premier ZHOU En-lai campaigned the whole nation against the "extreme leftist" ideology in an effort to rectify the mistakes made during the "Cultural Revolution". In 1974, he set the goal of "Four Modernizations."

In 1975, Mr. DENG Xiao-ping returned to power after the Cultural Revolution and carried out overall rectification. It was in CAS that all their endeavors were started, which showed the great foresight and expectations the leadership had towards CAS for its important role and functions and for the promotion of S&T to the development of national economy.

In 1975, Mr. HU Yao-bang was appointed to preside over CAS with the instruction of the Party leadership: "CAS should be rectified and its leadership be reinforced". Under the auspices of Mr. DENG Xiao-ping, the well-known "Report Guideline" was drafted.

In 1977, Mr. FANG Yi was appointed as CAS president. Much efforts were made to reinforce the leadership, to set to right what had been thrown into disorder, to implement right policies to intellectuals, and to rebuild research institutions.

Restoration and Exploration (1977 - 1986)

With the support of the Central Government, CAS was

• the first to restore the graduate student system;
• the first to set the "open, mobile, and cooperative policy" and set up Open Labs;
• the first to restore academic committee system;
• the first to employ the research funds and contract system in basic research and set up a science foundation open to the whole country, which led to the establishment of the National Natural Science Foundation;
• the first to practice the system of management responsibility on institute directors;
• the first to restore international exchanges and cooperation, including academic visits, conferences, overseas training and study in USA and European countries;
• the first to set up joint labs with foreign counterparts.

Reform and Innovation (1987 - )

In 1987, CAS put forward the conception of "One Academy Two Operational Mechanisms", based on the understanding that different types of S&T work had their own different regularities, and should be managed with different approaches and different modes, in order to break the closed system and to be open, mobile and cooperative. The main forces should be organized to serve the national economic and social development, while a "crack team" is retained for basic research and high-tech innovation.

The list of achievements during this time is long and includes:

• The first Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station;
• Shenguang High-Power Laser Device;
• The first high energy accelerator "Beijing Electron Positron Collider" (BEPC);
• Lanzhou Heavy Ion Accelerator;
• Hefei Synchrotron Radiation Facilities;
• Hefei Tokamak Facilities;
• Beijing Free Electron Laser Device;
• 2.16m Optical Telescope;
• Sha'nxi Long & short wave time server;
• the National Time Service Center;
• Multi-channel Solar Telescope;
  
  
• The Symplectic Algorithm for Hamiltonian Systems, developed by Prof. Feng Kang, founded the frontier research of integrating computing physics, computing mechanics and computing mathematics.
• The mathematic mechanization, proposed by Prof. Wu Wenjun, was internationally known as Wu's Algorithm.
• The composition of Ba-y-Cu-O Superconductor was published for the first time in the world, indicating that China was in the world's front rank of the superconductivity research.
• The first physical mapping of rice genome was successfully completed.
• The oldest fauna, dated around 580 million years ago, was discovered.
• Carbon nano tube arrays were successfully developed.
• 1% sequencing work was contributed to the International Human Genome Project.
  
  
• Very high resolution scanning radiometer & multi-channel scanning radiometer for the Fengyun No. 1 and No. 2 Meteorological Satellites;
• Successful large scale production of GBO crystal;
• Successful development of non-liner crystals of BBO and LBO;
• The first CR-01 6000m underwater robot;
• Dawning series large parallel computers;
• The first Internet links to Europe and USA from BEPC;
• Large scale permanent magnet for ALTHA Magnetic Spectrometer;
• China NetCom (CNC), the first broadband network, the first commercial broadband IP network based on the IP over DWDM technology, and the first commercial network on MPLS network technology, 40Gb bandwidth.
  
  
• Successful development of NdFeB permanent magnetic alloys -- founding of Beijing Zhong Ke San Huan High-tech Co. (listed in stock market);
• Successful development of Legend Chinese system cards -- founding of Legend Group;
• Successful development of intelligent English-Chinese machine translation system, and further the world's first pocket English-Chinese electronic dictionary -- founding of Huajian Group;
• Successful development of a new cardiovascular drug, "Di'ao Xinxuekang" -- founding of Di'ao Pharmaceutical Corporation;
• Successful development of new types of polymer engineering plastics -- founding of Shanghai Genius Advanced Material Co. Ltd.;
• Successful development of heat shrinkable polymer materials -- founding of Changchun Heat-Shrinkable Materials Co. (listed in stock market);
• Successful development of Linux operational system software -- founding of Red Flag Linux Software Co. Ltd.;
• Successful development of new type of advanced numerical control system -- founding of Blue Sky Company.

CAS has also actively participated in the development of China's high tech industry through its backing of both listed and joint venture companies.

Listed Companies include:

• Legend Holdings
• China Kejian Corporation
• Changchun Heat-Shrinkable Materials Co
• Beijing Zhong Ke San Huan High-tech Co.
• Daheng New Epoch Technology

Joint-Venture Companies

• started with overseas capital include Shanghai Nicera Sensor Corporation and Legend Holdings.
• started with local capital include Chengdu Di'ao Pharmaceutical Co., Beijing Zhong Sheng high-tech Bioengineering Company, and Beijing ZhongKe SanHuan High-tech Co
• started with government departments include CNC Net, Daheng New Epoch Technology, and Beijing Full Three Dimension Power Engineering Co. Ltd.
• started with CAS corporations and their S&T staff include Huajian Group Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Genius Advanced Material Co

CAS's over a hundred spin-off companies are mainly in the areas of information technology, new materials, electronic-mechanical integration and bio-medicine. Their revenue in 2000 reached about RMB 33 billion.

CAS has about 175 entities, such as engineering centers, technology innovation centers and joint-ventures, and about 1827 cooperative projects, that are jointly set up with industries and local organizations, with a total contract value about RMB1.14 billion. This has helped the related industries and local organizations realize their total sales increase of about RMB 11.595 billion, including RMB1.45 billion net profit.

CAS has close cooperative relationship with high tech parks (zones) in Shenzhen, Pudong District of Shanghai, Ninbo, Suzhou, Changchun and Shenyang.

Internationally, CAS has cooperative relations with over 60 countries and regional organizations, many high education institutions and enterprises, and the number of exchange of scientists has reached about 7,500 to 8,000 per year. Over 30 foreign scientists have been elected as CAS Foreign Member.

• Contributing 1% sequencing work to the international human genome project;
• Participating in the development of CMS detector;
• Cooperating with Russia for the building of Tokamak facilities;
• Setting up Young Scientist Groups jointly with German Max-Planck Society;
• Sino-French Joint Lab of Information, Automation & Applied Mathematics, and Sino-French Joint Lab of Catalysis;
• Cooperation on energy research and Chinese-American frontiers of science symposia with the US National Academy of Sciences;
• Cooperative research on desertification control with Japanese research organizations;
• Development of cooperation with Hong Kong, from the past short term visits to the present long term cooperation, including joint research and joint labs between CAS institutes and universities in Hong Kong.

Examples of CAS' cooperation with multinational corporations & big industries include:

• In chemistry and chemical engineering with German BASF AG and Bayer AG, and discussion with Volkswagen Foundation for jointly setting up Shanghai Interdisciplinary Research Center.
• Shanghai Simconix and DaimlerChrysler SIM Technology Co, Joint ventures between Daimler-Chrysler and Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy.
• Cooperative agreements between CAS Institute of Automation and Electricite France, Matra, Communication and Systems of France for joint research and training of senior researchers in the areas of information network, satellite image processing and its application in monitoring natural disasters.

CAS has also been involved in the training of qualified professionals

• CAS enrolled the first group of graduate students in China in 1955.
• CAS founded its graduate school in 1978.
• CAS now has about 13,000 graduate students and near 1,000 post -docs, and annually enrolls 5,800 graduate students and about 800 post-docs.
• CAS has trained about 54,000 graduate students and 2,400 post-docs, and has become the most important institution of graduate education outside the higher education system in China.
• CAS plans to have 20,000 graduate students and 1,500 post-docs in 2005.
• In the second half of 1997, CAS submitted to the Party Central Committee and the State Council a report, "Strive to build up a national innovation system to meet the Era of Knowledge-based Economy."

In February of 1998, President JIANG Ze-ming gave his instruction in reply: "Both the knowledge-based economy and innovation consciousness are vital to the development of our country in the 21st century. The financial turmoil in SouthEast Asia may slow down the development of conventional industries, however, it may provide the opportune time for the reorganization of the industry structure. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has made some proposals, and also has a research team. I think that supports may be given to the Academy to work out some pilot projects, advancing one step ahead of others, in an effort to build up our own innovation system."

In June 1998, the CAS pilot projects of the National Knowledge Innovation Program were formally launched.

The Future

Around the year 2010, CAS will be developed into the national innovation center of natural science and high tech, which aims at both national strategic targets and international frontiers of S&T, and has a powerful and sustainable innovation capability; a research base at the world advanced level; a education base for bringing up highly qualified scientific and technological professionals; a development base for the promotion of high-tech industrialization in the country; as well as an internationally influential and national knowledge bank, think-tank and talents pool of science & technology.

Original innovation in science and strategic innovation in high-tech will be strongly promoted with the orientations towards the state strategic demands and the international frontiers of S&T. Further efforts will be made to scale new heights in the development of S&T, and to make innovative contributions in fundamental, strategic and foresighted research to the economic development, national defense and social progress of the country.

Thank You!