[Reading Science] This Is the Real Nature of China's 'Doguangyanghui'

Major Research Achievements in Natural Sciences Surpass the US for the First Time
International Journal Nature Announces 2023 'Nature Index'

'Dogwangyanghoe (韜光養晦)'. It means hiding one's light and waiting for the right moment in the darkness. It is a national slogan China adopted after implementing reform and opening-up policies since the 1980s. It signifies sharpening the 'blade' to catch up with the significantly lagging scientific, technological, and economic levels compared to Western countries like the United States. Such efforts have shone not only in the economic sector, where China has risen to a G2 nation, but also in the field of science and technology. It has been revealed that China has surpassed the United States for the first time in history in the Nature Index, one of the benchmarks for the quality of natural science research.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The international academic journal Nature announced on the 19th (local time) that in the '2023 Nature Index,' which it independently calculates to evaluate the performance of natural science research papers by countries, research institutions, and companies worldwide, China scored 19,373 points, surpassing the United States (17,610 points) to claim the top spot globally for the first time. This figure quantifies the performance of papers published in 82 leading natural science journals worldwide over the past year, scored by the nationality of the authors.

Scores were assigned based on the nationalities of the authors of papers published in major academic journals. For example, if all authors are Chinese nationals, 1 point is awarded; if only 1 out of 10 authors is Chinese, 0.1 points are given. In other words, the number of natural science-related papers authored by Chinese researchers published in major journals exceeded that of American scholars. China has steadily maintained the lead in physics and chemistry while rapidly catching up with the United States. Recently, China has also begun to surpass the U.S. in earth and environmental sciences, with only the life sciences field still lagging behind.

It is a well-known fact in recent years that China has started to surpass the United States in scientific research output. Since the 2010s, various measurements of scientific research achievements have revealed that the center of scientific research is shifting to China. For example, as early as 2018, the U.S. National Science Foundation announced statistics showing that China was the country publishing the most papers worldwide. China was already ahead quantitatively. Over the past five years, attention has focused on whether China could surpass the U.S. in qualitative evaluations such as citation counts. In this regard, a reversal in quality has already been observed. The Japan National Institute of Science and Technology Policy announced last year that between 2018 and 2020, China had more papers in the top 1% most frequently cited worldwide than the United States.

Professor Caroline Wagner of Ohio State University explained, "In terms of simple indicators like paper productivity and citation counts, China has already exceeded expectations. However, its ability to apply and absorb knowledge is still significantly lower compared to other countries. It is uncertain what impact the decreasing research collaboration with major countries like the United States will have."

However, despite overtaking in the Nature Index, there are circumstances that make it difficult to say China has qualitatively surpassed the U.S. in natural science research. The number of papers including at least one Chinese author was 23,500, still behind the U.S.'s 25,200. Also, the number of papers published in the most prestigious journals, Nature and Science, was only 186, far fewer than the U.S.'s 786.