China calls for overseas education ventures in push for tech advancement
As part of a 10-year plan to transform China into a global education superpower, Beijing has encouraged joint projects involving overseas universities with highly ranked science and technology programmes to help boost the country’s self-reliance in cutting-edge fields.
The government called on local authorities to “enhance high-quality international collaborations in academia, industry and research” while “actively participating in global scientific cooperation”, state news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.
The blueprint – issued by the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council, the national cabinet – also called for advancing fundamental and interdisciplinary research, nurturing young talent and fostering an environment that “encourages exploration and tolerates failure”.
The joint institute, established in 2006, declared its closure months after the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on China claimed the Chinese university plays a “critical role” in the country’s “military-civil fusion strategy” – an entanglement of military and civilian interests in technology and research that has long been a subject of US interest.
China is exploring all possible avenues to increase its capacity for home-grown innovation as its wide-ranging competition with the US intensifies, with technological development and its consequent economic growth deemed “new-quality productive forces” by officials.
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