Korean Media: The Technological Gap Between South Korea and China Is Further Widening!
On March 22, the Korean media "Herald Economic" published an article stating that although South Korea's technological level has slightly narrowed the gap with the United States in core national technologies, the gap with China has actually widened further. In strategic technology areas, charging battery technology, which had long been at the top, is now being reversed by China.
According to the draft results of the "2024 Technical Level Assessment" released by the Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology of South Korea, South Korea's technical gap in 2024 was 2.8 years compared to the United States, which is 0.7 years behind China's 2.1 years.
The gap between South Korea and the United States has narrowed from 3.2 years to 2.8 years, a reduction of 0.4 years. However, in 2022, it was first surpassed by China, with a gap of 0.2 years, and now the gap has widened to 0.5 years.
This assessment comprehensively considers quantitative evaluations of 136 core national technologies in 11 fields among five major countries, as well as qualitative evaluation results from 1,180 experts.
The assessment results show that if the country with the highest technology, the United States, is set at 100%, the EU reached 93.8%, while China, Japan, and South Korea scored 86.8%, 86.2%, and 82.8% respectively, ranking third, fourth, and fifth.
South Korea and China continue to rise, while Japan has shown a continuous decline since 2016, and the EU has shown a continuous decline since 2020.
In the assessment of 50 key national strategic technologies, the gap between South Korea and the United States was 2.6 years, while China was 1.4 years, meaning China leads.
The survey shows that South Korea reduced the three-year technical gap by 0.4 years in 2022, but China reduced it by 0.8 years, successfully accelerating the narrowing of the strategic technology gap.
South Korea's only field where it ranked first, the charging battery sector, has been overtaken by China. In 2022, when South Korea was first, it was 0.9 years ahead of the second place, but in 2024, China moved up to first, with South Korea trailing by 0.2 years.
According to the analysis, South Korea's development level in artificial intelligence (AI) is only 80.6% of that of the United States, with a 2.1-year gap.
The report stated: "Securing strategic technologies is the core axis of national security and industrial competition. To quickly narrow the technological gap, it is necessary to strengthen basic and fundamental forces, take policy measures, and maximize South Korea's advantages in application areas."
Original: toutiao.com/article/1860365156002073/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.