中国创新难在哪？ Autocratic directives fail?to?spark creativity

Late last year, a Chinese military institute unveiled the world’s fastest supercomputer, accompanied by great fanfare from state media, which hailed it as a triumph of homegrown innovation.

去年底，中国一所军事院校研制出了世界上最快的超级计算机天河一号(Tianhe-1)。当时，中国官方媒体高奏赞歌，称之为自主创新的胜利。

But some top Chinese scientists were quick to dismiss the invention as little more than a propaganda stunt and it soon emerged that almost all the chips used to build the machine, the Tianhe-1, were made by Intel and Nvidia, a US computer animation company.

不过中国一些顶尖科学家很快就评价，这项创造不过是一个宣传噱头。而且，很快就爆出内幕称，制造天河一号所用的芯片几乎全都是由英特尔(Intel)和美国电脑动画公司英伟达(Nvidia)制造的。

“I am not saying it is utterly useless,” said one outspoken professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in a scathing interview with a Hong Kong newspaper. “It can play video games.”

中国科学院(Chinese Academy of Sciences)一位言辞犀利的教授在接受一家香港报纸的采访时，尖锐地批评说：“也不是说它完全没有用，它是能玩电脑游戏的。”

China is widely recognised as the origin of some of humankind’s greatest inventions, including papermaking, the compass and gunpowder. But today it is better known as a global source of cheap knock-offs and the main haven for intellectual property pirates.

中国被公认为人类历史上一些最伟大发明的发源地，包括造纸、指南针和火药。然而今天它更著名的身份却是全球造假大国、以及知识产权侵权行为的主要避风港。

Modern China’s comparative lack of inventiveness is a source of consternation for the ruling Communist party, which has made moving up the technology ladder a goal for its military and civilian sectors.

当代中国创造力的相对缺乏，令执政的共产党惊慌不已，于是提高科技水平成了中国在军事和民用领域的一个目标。

The country has “insufficient scientific and technological innovation capabilities” and “defects in systems and mechanisms that hinder scientific development”, Premier Wen Jiabao said in his latest state of the union speech this year.

中国总理温家宝在今年发表的最新的政府工作报告中提到中国“科技创新能力不强”，而且“制约科学发展的体制机制障碍依然较多”。

In order to address these deficiencies, Beijing has formulated ambitious targets and multi-decade development plans that aim to make China an “innovative nation” by 2020 and a “scientific superpower” by 2050.

为了解决这些弊端，中国政府制定了雄心勃勃的目标和未来数十年的发展蓝图，计划到2020年让中国成为“创新型国家”，到2050年成为“科技强国”。

For many years, it has raised the annual amount it spends on research and development by about 10 per cent and is expected to spend nearly $154bn in 2011, putting it in second place after the US (on $400bn).

中国的科技研发投入已连续多年以每年约10%的速度递增，预计2011年研发支出接近1540亿美元，位居世界第二，仅次于美国（4000亿美元）。

But analysts say one of the main obstacles is the government’s insistence on sparking creativity through autocratic directives, by ordering people to be inventive, and by throwing money at projects that often end up as white elephants.

然而分析人士指出，实现这些目标的主要障碍之一是中国政府坚持通过行政指令激发创造力，命令人们要有创新能力，并向某些项目大举投资，结果却往往发现它们成了沉重的包袱。

Endemic corruption and rampant academic cheating are also seen as problems, as are restrictions on freedom of thought and expression.

其他问题还包括腐败痼疾、学术造假猖獗，以及对思想自由和言论自由的禁锢。

For example, technology entrepreneurs from other countries are often shocked when they first come to China and experience how restricted and slow the internet is, thanks to the world’s most sophisticated online censorship regime.

比如，中国有着世界上最复杂的网络审查机制，其他国家科技行业的企业家第一次到中国后，常常会对中国网络受限范围之广、速度之缓慢感到震惊。

Beijing’s push to increase the number of patents filed by Chinese state-owned and private enterprises is a telling example of how the government’s policies do not necessarily produce the desired results.

谈到政府政策不一定能产生预期的结果，中国政府大力倡导国有企业和私营企业增加专利申请数量的做法，是一个很能说明问题的例子。

In terms of the number of patents filed, China witnessed an average annual growth rate of more than 26 per cent in total patent volume from 2003 to 2009, compared with the US which saw 5.5 per cent.

就申请的专利数量而言，中国在2003年到2009年间年均增长率为26%，相比之下，美国只有5.5%。

But about half the patents filed in recent years are so-called “utility models” which are less rigorous, more affordable and provide less protection than so-called “invention patents”.

不过最近几年中国申报的专利中，约有一半属于所谓的“实用新型专利”，与一般的“发明专利”相比，前者要求没有那么严格、申请成本更低、所受的保护也更弱。

In other words, China is leading the world in the quantity but not the quality of its innovation.

换言之，中国创新在数量上领先世界，但在质量上却未必。

“To catch up, let alone overtake the west, China must address some serious problems in its innovation system,” according to a report prepared earlier this year for the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

美中经济与安全审查委员会(US-China Economic and Security Review Commission)今年早些时候撰写的一份报告中指出：“中国要想赶上西方，就必须解决创新体制中一些严重的问题——更不要说超越了。”

The report said: “Chinese scientists and scientific managers admit serious problems of research creativity, fraud and dishonesty, weak accountability for research expenditures, troubled institutional arrangements for managing the nation’s scientific efforts, and a serious undersupply of highly qualified scientists and engineers.”

报告中写道：“中国科学家和科技领域的管理者承认中国在许多领域存在严重的问题，如科研创造力、造假和舞弊、研究经费问责制度欠缺、国家科研活动管理方面的制度安排十分混乱、高质量科学家和工程师供应严重不足。”

Analysts note some success in incremental innovations in areas such as clean energy, space technology, gene sequencing and supercomputing.

分析人士也指出，在清洁能源、空间技术、基因测序和超级计算机等领域的渐进式创新方面，中国的确取得了一些成就。

But none of these technologies was invented in China and the fact remains that the intellectual property behind about 90 per cent of the country’s high-tech exports is developed and owned by foreign companies.

然而这些技术中，没有一项是中国自主发明的。现实情况依然是，中国出口的高科技产品中，约90%产品的知识产权是由外国企业研发和持有的。

One of the main elements of Beijing’s technological development strategy is a continued focus on extracting advanced technology from foreign companies attracted by China’s huge domestic market.

中国科技开发战略的主导思想之一就是：继续将重点放在从被中国巨大的国内市场吸引来的外国企业身上吸取先进技术。

“Technology transfer” is often a condition for any multinational company hoping to gain access to Chinese customers and, although they often complain bitterly in private, these companies mostly end up agreeing to hand over precious technologies.

“技术转让”经常是任何一家希望打入中国市场的跨国公司都必须接受的条件，虽然这些公司经常在私下里愤怒地抱怨，但它们最终大多会同意出让宝贵的技术。

China’s much-hyped high-speed train network, already the largest in the world, has been a big beneficiary of this policy, which has allowed companies to “digest” foreign technology and then “re-innovate” to produce indigenous products they hope eventually to sell abroad.

中国大力宣扬的高速铁路网络——目前规模已位居全球之首——就是技术转让政策的一大受益者。这项政策允许企业“消化吸收”外国技术，再加以“再创造”，从而产出希望最终能够销往国外的自主研发产品。

Those plans have probably been derailed for now by a devastating crash on a high-speed line in late July that killed at least 40 people and injured nearly 200.

此类计划很可能已经因今年7月下旬发生的特大高铁事故而搁置。那起事故造成至少40人死亡，将近200人受伤。

This came after the detention in February of China’s former rail minister amid allegations of serious corruption. Together, these incidents have thrown into question the entire project, which until recently was advertised, like the Tianhe-1 supercomputer, as a shining symbol of technological prowess.

此前，中国前铁道部长今年2月因涉嫌巨额腐败而被拘捕。这两起事件使整个高铁项目备受质疑，而直到不久前，高铁项目还和天河一号超级计算机一样，被当作科技实力的璀璨象征而受到广泛宣传。