3 hours ago
As Chinese science makes great strides, some US China hawks have been sounding the alarm. They view Chinese scientific progress as a significant national security threat to the United States, signaling the relative decline of US scientific dominance and potentially creating dependence on China.
In one extreme example, Leland Miller, a senior consultant for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, recently stated in an interview that China discovering a cure for cancer would pose a national security threat to the US due to its supposed supply chain implications.
This perspective is misguided. The rise of Chinese science benefits not only China but also the US and the rest of the world.
The scientific and economic dominance of the US for much of the post-World War II era has had a downside for Americans: scientific progress relevant to their lives can be held hostage by US domestic politics. When a US administration opposes useful scientific discoveries, the presence of another major scientific power with different priorities—such as China—can help Americans avoid losing out due to the unpredictable whims of their own political system.
American science, like that in many other countries, largely depends on funding from various levels of its own government. The development of scientific discoveries into products that improve people’s lives usually requires approval from various US government regulatory bodies.
The post-war scientific and economic dominance of the US—with the government as the largest funder of basic research and the US as the key market for many resulting products—has effectively given the US government veto power over scientific progress and its diffusion. Scientific fields and their consumer products can be stunted or die off for many years if they are opposed by small but influential segments of the US public or politicians.
