Abstract
The rise of China is a dominant theme in international politics. While factors such as demographics, geography or the skyrocketing Chinese Gross Domestic Product (GDP) have received persistent attention from researchers, this article points to a different and neglected aspect of China’s ascent: knowledge und technology. I argue that a truly comprehensive understanding of how China could (again) become a hub of world politics requires an historical exploration of the Chinese position within the global political economy of knowledge. Few authors have emphasized China’s blossoming technical and scientific capacities as a critical source of its growing influence (but see Lampton 2008). Their arguments strongly resonate with quantitative indices, which demonstrate the accelerating strengthening of China’s output of publications, basic research capacities, and scientific networks (Royal Society 2011). Recent research also points to the possibility that a number of emerging economies, including China, are transforming into genuine commercial innovation hubs (Altenburg et al. 2008; Ernst 2011; CGS-Forschungsgruppe Wissensmacht 2011). Already, the concern with “the race to the top” in research and technology permeates policy discourses all around the world. Due to the advent of the global “knowledge economy” (OECD 2010; cf. Moldaschl and Stehr 2010), the importance of innovativeness is poised to increase only further.
Thanks for support and precious comments to all members of the CGS-Forschungsgruppe Wissensmacht, Peer Schouten, Ruth Knoblich, Jared Sonnicksen, and the editors. All remaining errors are my own.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Due to space constraints this chapter cannot provide a comprehensive overview. For an excellent review see Fritsch (2011).
- 2.
This chapter built on concepts from IPE and thus remains a limited contribution to the ongoing conceptualization work. Constructivist and post-structuralist perspectives on knowledge and technology (see for instance Haas 1992; Litfin 1994; Mayer 2012; Miller 2007) are deliberately excluded from the analysis and will subsequently be dealt with elsewhere.
- 3.
Kennedy (1987) additionally points to the financial underpinning that might hamper a hegemon’s ability to preserve his innovation leadership and technological advantage over his rivals.
- 4.
Archibugi’s (2010) conclusion that the current IPR are in the interest of a small number of multinational enterprises, yet not necessarily conducive for the national economies as a whole, corresponds with earlier assertions that the accelerating development of technologies is a “prime cause of the shift in the state-market balance of power” (Strange 1996: 7). The balance of the global knowledge structures appears to increasingly tilt towards the big corporations at the expense of states. For others patents and copyrights are unnecessary for innovation to happen at all. See Boldrin and Levine (2008).
- 5.
For a discussion of the renaissance of Schumpeter’s ideas see Freeman (2003).
- 6.
- 7.
Once established, however, these industries become huge players that are inclined to slow down developments and sustain the existing structures.
- 8.
- 9.
This reductionist definition of “knowledge” certainly will not meet the consent of many scholars, but it resembles an umbrella concept for pragmatic use rather than a concise and exhaustive terminology.
- 10.
Joseph Needham’s work shows that for millennia Imperial China had been the world’s technological leader and many Chinese innovations in agriculture, defense, navigation, transport and power precede their European ‘rediscovery’ for centuries (Needham 1982).
- 11.
For a detailed account of the success and flaws of technology import and absorption policies in the 1980s see Shi (1998).
- 12.
Breznitz and Murphree (2011) illustrate this aspect in their study of the Chinese IT industry.
- 13.
The Bureau of Export Administration (1998: V) openly states that “[t]he transfer of advanced US technology is the price of market access in China for US high-tech companies.”
- 14.
Data derived from the WIPO under http://www.wipo.int/ipstats/en/statistics/patents/.
- 15.
For the restrictive US policy with respect to space technology see Guo (2006).
- 16.
For a critical analysis of the “Chineseness” of Chinese companies see Pan (2009).
- 17.
Chinese enterprises have acted perfectly rational because their strategy responds to the generally uncertain climate in China that prohibits risky long-term investments in innovation because laws for intellectual properties are absent, unclear, or loosely enforced (Breznitz and Murphree 2011: 13ff).
- 18.
The cooperation between universities and start-up firms, which is among the main engines of growth and innovation in the US, does not work fully efficient without clear and effective IPR either.
- 19.
The People’s Liberation Armey’s military technology usually is one or two decades behind its competitors (Cheung 2011). For the case of maritime technology see Kirchberger in this volume.
- 20.
The defense sector suffering from prolonged export bans from Europe, Japan, and the U.S. is the critical exemption in this regard.
- 21.
Chinese Internet firms possible could be among the first to change this pattern. See Economist (2011).
- 22.
A mixed NKS combines state and commercial funding of research and innovation, market dynamics and strategic national innovation policies. With respect to technology transfer dominant powers will rely on both regulation of IPR and secrecy. The diffusion of critical dual-use items could for instance be object to export restrictions.
References
Adams, J., King, C., & Ma, N. (2009). Global research report China. Research and collaboration in the new geography of science. Leeds: Thompson Reuters.
Ali, M., Aleem, M., & Park, K. (2011). A spiral process model of technological innovation in a developing country: The case of Samsung. African Journal of Business Management, 5(7), 2874–2889.
Allen, M. (2004). The varieties of capitalism paradigm: Not enough variety? Socio-Economic Review, 2(1), 87–108.
Altenburg, T., Schmitz, H., & Stamm, A. A. (2008). Breakthrough? China’s and India’s transition from production to innovation. World Development, 36(2), 325–344.
Archibugi, D., & Michie, J. (Eds.). (1997). Technology, globalisation and economic performance. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Baark, E. (2007). Knowledge and innovation in China: Historical legacies and emerging institutions. Asia Pacific Business Review, 13(3), 337–356.
Boldrin, M., & Levine, D. (2008). Against intellectual monopoly. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Bosworth, D., & Yang, D. (2000). Intellectual property law, technology flow and licensing opportunities in the People’s Republic of China. International Business Review, 9, 453–477.
Breznitz, D., & Murphree, M. (2011). The run of the red queen: Government, innovation, globalization, and economic growth in China. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Buzan, B. (1987). An introduction to strategic studies: Military technology and international relations. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
CGS-Forschungsgruppe Wissensmacht. (2011). Sind die BRIC-Staaten aufsteigende Wissensmächte? Herausforderungen für die deutsche Wissenspolitik. Januar 2011, http://www.cgs-bonn.de/pdf/DP-3_BRIC_Wissensmacht_Final.pdf.
Chang, H.-J. (2002). Kicking away the ladder. Development strategy in historical perspective. London: Anthem Press.
Chen, D., & Li-Hua, R. (2011). Modes of technological leapfrogging: Five case studies from China. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 28(1–2), 93–108.
Cheung, T. M. (2011). The Chinese defense economy’s long March from imitation to innovation. Journal of Strategic Studies, 34(3), 325–354.
Chu, W.-W. (2011). How the Chinese government promoted a global automobile industry. Industrial and Corporate Change, 20, 1–42.
Conroy, R. (1986). China’s technology import policy. The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, 15, 19–56.
van Crefeld, M. (1989). Technology and war: From 2000 B.C. to the present. New York: Free Press.
van Crefeld, M. (1999). The rise and decline of the State. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Demchak, C. C., & Dombrowski, P. (2011). Rise of a Cybered Westphalian Age. Strategic Studies Quarterly, 5(1), 32–61.
Der Derian, J. (2009). Virtuous war: Mapping the military- industrial-media-entertainment network. London: Routledge.
Diamond, A. M., Jr. (2006). Schumpeter’s creative destruction: A review of the evidence. Journal of Private Enterprise, 22(1), 120–146.
Dicken, P. (2007). Global shift. Mapping the changing contours of the world economy (5th ed.). Los Angeles/London: Sage.
Dickson, D. (1988). The new politics of science. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Divine, R. A. (1993). The Sputnik challenge. New York: Oxford University Press.
Evers, H.-D., Menkhoff, T., & Wah, C. Y. (Eds.). (2010). Governing and managing knowledge in Asia (2nd ed.). Singapore/London: World Scientific Publishing.
Ernst, D. (2009). A new geography of knowledge in the electronics industry? Asia’s role in Global innovation networks (Policy studies, Vol. 54). Honolulu: East–west Center.
Ernst, D. (2008). Can Chinese IT firms develop innovative capabilities within global knowledge networks? In M. G. Hancock, H. S. Rowen, & W. F. Miller (Eds.), Greater China’s quest for innovation (pp. 107–216). Stanford, CA/Washington, DC: Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center/Brookings Institution Press.
Ernst, D. (2011). China’s innovation policy is a wake-up call for America. In Asia Pacific Issues, No. 100. http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/api100.pdf. Accessed on 10 December 2011
Fagerberg, J., & Srholec, M. (2008). National innovation systems, capabilities and economic development. Research Policy, 37(9), 1417–1435.
Fan, P. (2011). Innovation, globalization, and catch-up of latecomers: Cases of Chinese telecom firms. Environment and Planning A, 43(4), 830–849.
Feigenbaum, E. A. (1999). Who’s behind China’s high-technology ‘Revolution’? How bomb makers remade Beijing’s priorities, policies, and institutions. International Security, 24(1), 95–126. Summer 1999.
Fischer, M. (1982). Tensions from technology in Marx’s communist society. Journal of Value Inquiry, 16, 117–129.
Freeman, C. (2003). A Schumpeterian renaissance? (SPRU electronic working paper series, Vol. 102). Brighton: University of Sussex.
Fritsch, S. (2011). Technology and global affairs. International Studies Perspectives, 12(1), 27–45.
Fu, X., & Gong, Y. (2011). Indigenous and foreign innovation efforts and drivers of technological upgrading: Evidence from China. World Development, 39(7), 1213–1225.
Gereffi, G., Wadhwa, V., Rissing, B., & Ong, R. (2008). Getting the numbers right: International engineering education in the United States, China, and India. Journal of Engineering Education, 1, 13–25.
Gerschenkron, A. (1962). Economic backwardness in historical perspective, a book of essays. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
Gilboy, J. G. (2004). The myth behind China’s miracle. Foreign Affairs, 83(4), 33–48.
Gilpin, R. (1981). War and change in international politics (p. 54). Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Guan, J. C., et al. (2006). Technology transfer and innovation performance: Evidence from Chinese firms. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 73, 666–678.
Guo, X. (2006). Blockade on China or the United States? U.S. regulatory policies on space technology exports to China. WSI China Security, 2(1), 73–83.
Gupta, A. K., & Wang, H. (2011). China as an innovation center? Not so fast. Wall Street Journal, 28 July 2011.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903591104576469670146238648.html.
Haas, E. B. (1975). Is there a Hole in the whole? Knowledge, technology, interdependence, and the construction of international regimes. International Organization, 29(3), 827–876.
Haas, P. M. (1992). Introduction: Epistemic communities and international policy coordination. International Organization, 46(1), 1–35.
Hall, P. A., & Soskice, D. (2001). Varieties of capitalism: The institutional foundations of comparative advantage. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.
Hobsbawm, E. J. (1987). The Age of Empire 1875–1914. London: Weidenfels and Nicolson.
Hornidge, A.-K. (2006). Singapore: The knowledge-hub in the straits of Malacca (ZEF working paper series, Vol. 14). Bonn: Center for Development Research, University of Bonn.
Ikenson, D. J. (2011). U.S. leaders learning the wrong lessons from China’s rise. China-U.S. Focus, 15 March 2011. http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12882.
Jasanoff, S. (Ed.). (2004). States of knowledge. The co-production of science and social order. London: Routledge.
Jervis, R. (1989). The meaning of the nuclear revolution: Statecraft and the prospect of Armageddon. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Juma, C., Fang, K., Honca, D., Huete-Perez, J., Konde, V., Lee, S. H., Arenas, J., Ivinson, A., Robinson, H., & Singh, S. (2001). Global governance of technology: Meeting the needs of developing countries. International Journal of Technology Management, 22(7/8), 629–655.
Kennedy, P. (1987). Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000. New York: Random House.
Keohane, R. O., & Nye, J. S., Jr. (1998). Power and interdependence in the information age. Foreign Affairs, 77(5), 81–94.
Kindleberger, C. P. (1988). The international economic order: Essays on financial crisis and international public goods. New York: The MIT Press.
Lampton, D. M. (2008). The three faces of Chinese power: Might, money, and minds. Berkeley: UC Press.
Law, John. (1987). Technology and heterogeneous engineering: The case of Portuguese expansion. In W. E. Bijker et al. (Eds.), The social construction of technological systems. New directions in the sociology and history of technology (pp. 111–134). London/Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lewis, J. I. (2007). Technology acquisition and innovation in the developing world: Wind Turbine development in China and India. Studies in Comparative International Development, 42, 208–232.
Li, X. (2008). Patent counts as indicators of the geography of innovation activities: Problems and perspectives. Research Papers 18. South Centre. http://www.southcentre.org/ARCHIVES/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=1221. Accessed on 10 December 2011
Litfin, K. T. (1994). Ozone discoures. Science and politics in global environmental cooperation. New York: Columbia University Press.
Long, W. J. (1991). Economic incentives and international cooperation: Technology transfer to the People’s Republic of China, 1978–86. Journal of Peace Research, 28(2), 175–189.
Lord Sainsbury of Turville. (2007). The race to the top. A review of government’s science and innovation policies. HM Treasury. http://www.rsc.org/images/sainsbury_review051007_tcm18-103116.pdf. Accessed 10 Jan 2011.
Lubman, S. (2011). Changes to China’s ‘indigenous innovation’ policy: Don’t get too excited. The Wall Street Journal, 22 July 2011. http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/07/22/changes-to-chinas-indigenous-innovation-policy-dont-get-too-excited/.
Luan, C., & Zhang, T. (2011). Innovation in China: A patentometric perspective (1985–2009). Journal of Knowledge-based Innovation in China, 3(3), 184–197.
May, C. (2009). The global political economy of intellectual property rights. The new enclosures (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
Mayer, M. (2012). Chaotic climate change and security. International Political Sociology (forthcoming).
McBride, W. (1997). The unstable dynamics of a strategic technology: Disarmament, unemployment, and the interwar battleship. Technology and Culture, 38(2), 386–423.
McDonald, K., Bosshard, P., & Brewer, N. (2009). Exporting dams: China’s hydropower industry goes global. Journal of environmental management, 90(Suppl. 3), 294–302.
Mertha, A. (2005). The politics of piracy: Intellectual property in contemporary China. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Miller, C. A. (2007). Democratisation, international knowledge institutions, and global governance. Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 20(2), 325–357.
Moldaschl, M., & Stehr, N. (Eds.). (2010). Wissensökonomie und Innovation. Beiträge zur Ökonomie der Wissensgesellschaft. Marburg: Metropolis.
Morishima, M. (1982). Why has Japan ‘succeeded’? Western technology and the Japanese ethos. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Mowery, D. C. (1992). The U.S. national innovation system: Origins and prospects. Research Policy, 21, 125–144.
Naugthon, B. (1988). The third front: Defence industrialization in the Chinese interior. China Quarterly, 115, 351–386.
Naughton, B. (2011). China’s economic policy today: The new state activism. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 52(3), 313–329.
Needham, J. (1982). Science in traditional China. Boston: Harvard University.
Nye, J. S., Jr., & Owens, W. (1996). America’s information edge. Foreign Affairs, 75(2), 20–36.
OECD. (2010). OECD science, technology and industry outlook. Paris: OECD Publishing.
O’Mara, M. P. (2004). Cities of knowledge: Cold war science and the search for the next Silicon Valley. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Paarlberg, R. L. (2004). Knowledge as power: Science, military dominance and U.S. security. International Security, 29(1), 122–151.
Pan, C. (2009). What is Chinese about Chinese businesses? Locating the ‘rise of China’ in global production networks. Journal of Contemporary China, 18, 7–25.
Rosenau, J. N. (1990). Turbulence in world politics: A theory of change and continuity. Princeton: Princeton University.
Rosenberg, N., Landau, R., & Mowery, D. (Eds.). (1992). Technology and the wealth of nations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Royal Society. (2011). Knowledge, networks and nations. London: Royal Society.
Ruggie, J. G. (1975). International responses to technology: Concepts and trends. International Organization, 29(3), 557–583.
Russell, A. (1997). Technologyas knowledge. Generic technology and change in the global political economy. In M. Talalay, C. Farrands, & R. Tooze (Eds.), Technology, culture and competitiveness. Change and the world political economy (pp. 41–57). London/New York: Routledge.
Schouten, P. (2011). Theory Talk #40: Kenneth Waltz – The Physiocrat of International Politics. Theory Talks, http://www.theory-talks.org/2011/06/theory-talk-40.html (04-06-2011)
Segal, A. (2010). China’s innovation wall. Beijing’s push for homegrown technology. Foreign Affairs, 28 Sep 2010. http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66753/adam-segal/chinas-innovation-wall.
Shi, Y. (1998). Chinese firms and technology in the Reform Era. London: Routledge.
Schumpeter, J. A. (1926). Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
Schumpeter, J. A. (1947). Capitalism, socialism and democracy. New York: Harper.
Shobert, B. A. (2011). Fly China, risk included, Asiatimes, 29 April 2011. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/MD29Cb01.html.
Singer, P. W. (2009). Wired for war: The robotics revolution and conflict in the 21st century. New York: Penguin Press.
Singleton, R. (2008). Knowledge and technology: The basis of wealth and power by Ross Singleton. In D. N. Balaam & M. Veseth (Eds.), Introduction to international political economy (4th ed.). Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River.
Smil, V. (2010). Prime movers of globalization: The history and impact of diesel engines and gas turbines. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Spence, J. (2001). Chinas Weg in die Moderne. München: DTV.
Strange, S. (1987). The persistent myth of lost hegemony. International Organization, 41(4), 551–574.
Strange, S. (1988). States and markets – An introduction to international political economy. London: Pinter Publishers.
Strange, S. (1989). Towards a theory of transnational empire. In E.-O. Czempiel & J. N. Rosenau (Eds.), Global changes and theoretical challenge. Lexington: Lexington Books.
Strange, S. (1996). The retreat of the state. The diffusion of power in the world economy. Cambridge, NY: Cambrige University Press.
Sun, Y. (2002). China’s national innovation system in transition. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 43(6), 476–492.
Sun, Y., von Zedtwitz, M., & Simon, D. F. (2007). Globalization of R&D and China: An introduction. Asia Pacific Business Review, 13(3), 311–319.
Suttmeier, R. P., Yao, X., Tan, A. Z. (2004). China’s post-WTO technology policy: Standards, software, and the changing nature of techno-nationalism. NBR Reports (May 2004).
Tang, M., & Hussler, C. (2011). Betting on indigenous innovation or relying on FDI: The Chinese strategy for catching-up. Technology in Society, 33, 23–35.
Taplin, R., & Nowak, A. Z. (Eds.). (2010). Intellectual property, innovation and management in emerging economies. Oxon: Routledge.
The Bureau of Export Administration (1998) US Commercial Technology Transfer to the People's Republic of China. Washington
The Economist. (2011). An internet with Chinese characteristics. The Economist, 30 July 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/21524821.
de la Tour, A., Glachant, M., & Meniere, Y. (2011). Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry. Energy Policy, 39, 761–770.
U.S. Congress, & Office of Technology Assessment. (1987). Technology transfer to China. OTA-ISC-340. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Wechsler, A. (2011). Intellectual property law in the People’s Republic of China: A powerful economic tool for innovation and development. China-EU Law Journal. doi: 10.1007/s12689-011-0001-x. http://www.springerlink.com/content/8810u786670m3472/fulltext.pdf. Accessed on 10 December 2011
Weiss, C. (2005). Science, technology and international relations. Technology in Society, 27, 295–313.
Westad, O. A. (Ed.). (1998). Brothers in arms: The rise and fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1945–1963. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
Wilsdon, J., & Keeley, J. (2007). China: The next science superpower? London: Demos.
Wissen, M. (2003). TRIPs, TRIPs-plus und WIPO. Konflikte um die Eigentumsrechte an genetischen Ressourcen. In Christoph Görg: Postfordistische Naturverhältnisse. Konflikte um genetische Ressourcen und die Internationalisierung des Staates (pp. 128–155). Münster: Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot.
White House. (2011). Transcript: Obama’s State of the Union address. http://www.npr.org/2011/01/26/133224933/transcript-obamas-state-of-union-address. Accessed on 10 December 2011
WIPO. (2010). World intellectual property indicators. Geneva: WIPO.
Xing, Y. (2011a). China’s exports in information communication technology and its impact on Asian countries. Economic Change and Restructuring, 44, 135–147.
Xing, Y. (2011). China’s high-tech exports: Myth and reality. GRIPS discussion paper 11–05 (June 2011).
Zhang, B., Zhang, J., & Yao, F. (2006). Technology transfer from the Soviet union to the People’s Republic of China 1949–1966. Comparative Technology Transfer and Society, 4(2), 105–167.
Zhang, S. G. (2001). Economic cold war: America’s embargo against China and the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1949–1963. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
Zweig, D., Changgui, C., & Rosen, S. (2004). Globalization and transnational human capital: Overseas and returnee scholars to China. The China Quarterly, 179, 735–757.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mayer, M. (2012). Exploring China’s Rise as Knowledge Power. In: Fels, E., Kremer, JF., Kronenberg, K. (eds) Power in the 21st Century. Global Power Shift. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25082-8_15
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25082-8_15
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-25081-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-25082-8
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)