Sci-Tech development in China over 60 years

In 1900, China had no modern science and technology. At that time, less than 10 people throughout China had learned calculus. In 2001, "Shenzhou II," China's unmanned spaceship was successfully launched and retrieved. The development speed of China's science and technology in the previous 100 years was regarded as unprecedented. By early 21st century, China has remarkably narrowed the gap in general between its development level of high technology and the world's advanced level. Over 60 percent of China's technologies have approached the international advanced level, and 25 percent have greatly progressed, though still lagging behind the international advanced level.

Most of the changes took place in the latter half of the last century. The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was established in November 1949, and in the 1960s, the number of the nation's scientific research institutions increased to over 1,600, covering a wide range of major disciplinary and technological fields and employing some 200,000 professionals. After experiencing the 10-year turmoil of the "cultural revolution," China's political, economic, cultural, and scientific and technological developments entered a recovery period. The government re-formulated the outline of the national science and technology development plan. The number of important scientific and technological achievements in 1979 alone exceeded the total number of the previous 10 years. Since then, China's scientific and technological development had entered a new period attracting worldwide attention. By the end of 2001, there were a total of 28.87 million professional technical personnel working in state-owned enterprises and institutions in China, of whom 930,000 were engaged in research and development activities, including 700,000 scientists and engineers.