China gaining a stranglehold on critical tech

China is hurtling towards dominance over the west in global technology fields including defence, space, robotics and AI, a world-first study has found.

Onlookers watch the launch of a rocket transporting China’s second module for its Tiangong space station. Picture: AFP

China is hurtling towards dominance over the west in global technology, raising fears it will soon have a stranglehold on the supply of some of the world’s most critical technologies according to a landmark report.

The world-first study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has found that China is much further advanced on key technologies compared to the rest of the world than was previously believed.

The report, based on a newly developed Critical Technology Tracker website, found that China now leads the world in 37 of the 44 most critical technology fields including defence, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology and artificial intelligence.

“China has built the foundations to position itself as the world’s leading science and technology superpower, by establishing a sometimes stunning lead in high-impact research across the majority of critical and emerging technology domains,” ASPI says.

Closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras at the China Public Security Expo at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center in Shenzhen. Picture: AFP

“For some technologies, all of the world’s top 10 leading research institutions are based in China and are collectively generating nine times more high-impact research papers than the second-ranked country (most often the US).”

The report, which examines and compares high-impact technology research around the globe, warns that unless western nations make a concerted effort to catch China, Beijing will soon be in a position to control the supply of some critical technologies.

“Unchecked, this could shift not just technological development and control but global power and influence to an authoritarian state where the development, testing and application of emerging, critical and military technologies isn’t open and transparent and where it can’t be scrutinised by independent civil society and media,” the report says.

China (could) gain a stranglehold on the global supply of certain critical technologies,’ it says. “Such risks are exacerbated because of the willingness of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to use coercive techniques outside of the global rules-based order to punish governments and businesses, including withholding the supply of critical technologies.”

China's President Xi Jinping. Picture: AFP

ASPI found that China’s strength in technology research was underpinned by importing its talent and knowledge with one-fifth of its high impact research papers being authored by those with postgraduate training in Five-Eye countries.

“China’s lead is the product of deliberate design and long-term policy planning, as repeatedly outlined by Xi Jinping and his predecessors,” the report says.

The year-long study found that the US leads in the remaining seven of the 44 technologies and comes second in most of the 37 technologies that China leads.

Australia ranks among the top five countries for nine technologies, performing strongly in fields including cyber security, critical minerals extraction and processing, electric batteries, hydrogen and 3D printing.

It says China is especially excelling in defence and space-related technologies including advances in nuclear-capable hypersonic missiles which took US intelligence by surprise in 2021.

“Over the past five years, China generated 48.49% of the world’s high-impact research papers into advanced aircraft engines, including hypersonics, and it hosts seven of the world’s top 10 research institutions in this topic area,” the report found.

ASPI says that for western nations to catch up, a ‘strategic critical technology step-up’ is required.

This requires far deeper collaboration between allies and greater investment in research and development, talent and commercialisation. It says that innovations such as sovereign wealth funds to provide venture capital should be considered.

“Governments must make more space for new, bigger and more creative policy ideas - the step-up in performance required demands no less,” ASPI says.

“It’s important that we seek to fill this gap so we don’t face a future in which one or two countries dominate new and emerging industries (something that recently occurred in 5G technologies) and so countries have ongoing access to trusted and secure critical technology supply chains.”