生生不息的火焰:全球科学中的中国

Everliving Fire:China in Global Science

1990年以来,全球范围内的基层合作催生了一个庞大且充满活力的全球科学系统;欧美国家的科学系统紧密联结,成为全球科学系统中的双寡头;许多中等收入国家也建立起国家科学系统,其中部分国家采用一种半“独立式”发展路径,即基于政府投资、国内科学合作网络建设、有选择地建设国际合作网络,建立高度有效的国家科学系统,但并不试图紧密融入全球双寡头科学系统。该发展路径被除了越南的所有东亚国家成功采用。这种路径考虑本国的特殊国情,且不遵循欧美国家的发展模式,因而在有关科学的文献中并不总能被理解。中国如今是世界第二大科学强国,在某些理工科领域排名第一,本文通过分析中国在资金、科学论文产出、学科平衡、国际化战略以及建立国家和全球科学网络等方面的做法,解释中国在把科学嵌套进国家体系的基础上,如何做到“正和”地联合全球活动与国家、地方活动。本文还讨论了中国成就的局限性,并指出中美关系在中国的科学建设中发挥了重要作用,未来中美科学系统将有可能部分解耦。

Since 1990,a large and dynamic global science system has evolved by incorporating grass roots collaboration.Euro-American national science systems became intensively networked as a global duopoly,and many middle-income countries built their own national science systems.These include a group of countries that followed a semi‘stand-alone’trajectory,establishing robust national systems using government investment,national network building and selective international connections,without integrating tightly into the global duopoly.The stand-alone trajectory,which varies from nation to nation and does not comply with Euro-American patterns(and hence is not always understood in literature on science)has been successfully pursued in all East Asian countries except Vietnam.China is now the number two leader in scientific research in the world,number one in selected areas of STEM.The paper investigates developments in China in funding,scientific research output,balance of disciplines,internationalization strategy,and national and global networking,explaining how China has combined global activity and local/national activity on the ground of the nationally-nested science system.It also discusses limits of its achievement,and notes that while China-US relations have been instrumental in building science in China,a partial decoupling is in prospect.