Reference Message Network reported on June 9 that according to a report on June 5 on the website of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, the "Critical and Emerging Technologies Index" report released by the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University on May 5 stated that the United States continues to lead China in key technology fields such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, semiconductors, space, and quantum.
The index gives considerable weight to private and public funding resources - an area where the U.S. has an advantage, but major indicators focusing on research output, such as the "Nature Index" compiled and maintained by the academic journal Nature and the "Key Technology Tracking Project" by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, do not reflect this. The research team from Harvard University stated that both of these indicators show that China is leading in many research fields.
Meanwhile, the Harvard University report also shows that although it believes the U.S. leads in all key technology areas, China still remains competitive and is steadily narrowing the gap.
The report titled "Critical and Emerging Technologies Index" states: "Due to reliance on imported equipment, weak early private research, and insufficient capital, China lags behind the U.S. in semiconductor and advanced artificial intelligence; however, China is closer to the U.S. in biotechnology and quantum technology, with advantages in pharmaceutical production, quantum sensing, and quantum communication."
The report also states: "Leveraging advantages in economic resources, human capital, and centralized planning, China is utilizing economies of scale to reduce dependence on imports, attract innovative resources to stay domestically, and enhance industrial competitiveness."
Regarding artificial intelligence, the report points out: "China has made significant progress and possesses unique advantages that will challenge the U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence in the next decade."
The research team believes that the U.S. has an advantage in economic resources, computing power, and algorithms, while China leads in data and human capital.
However, the team noted that the U.S. lead in the field of artificial intelligence "may be more fragile than previously thought," citing recent models like DeepSeek-R1 released in China.
The report particularly mentions that China is most likely to surpass the U.S. first in biotechnology because it "dominates the pharmaceutical production sector through large-scale public investment and state-supported manufacturing."
Ethan Kessler, one of the authors of the report, said that apart from biotechnology, China poses a major threat to the U.S. in semiconductors and quantum technology - the raw scores between them are very close in these two fields.
The report also found that the U.S. and China are the two countries leading in key technology fields, with a significant gap between them and second-tier competitors such as Japan, South Korea, the U.K., and Germany.
According to a report published by The Economist on June 6, an index report compiled by Harvard University researchers attempted to measure the technological strength of various countries. This index ranks the performance of 25 countries in five fields: artificial intelligence, semiconductors, biotechnology, space, and quantum technology. According to the report, the U.S. dominates these rankings, but other countries are catching up.
In all these fields, artificial intelligence is the most attention-grabbing issue for political figures. The U.S. clearly leads in artificial intelligence due to its early technical breakthroughs, but China's DeepSeek-R1 model is already competing with Western models at extremely low costs.
In other fields, the competition for the top spot is fiercer. The U.S. still leads in biotechnology, but China has an advantage in drug production and has a larger pool of bio-scientists. Over the past decade, China has significantly enhanced its biotechnology research capabilities. If this trend continues, China may soon surpass the U.S.
The U.S. once had an unshakable position of leadership in key technologies. However, the Trump administration may have damaged this position: by scaring away top foreign talent and cutting research funding, it will weaken the flow of ideas that has long helped maintain the U.S. lead.
At the same time, China's rise remains rapid and orderly. China's push for artificial intelligence places more emphasis on practical applications rather than solely seeking theoretical breakthroughs. The next phase of global power struggles may not only depend on who invents the most powerful tools but also on who applies them earliest.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7513776584587854347/
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