Science and Technology in the United States and China: Cooperation and Conflict

For nearly 200 years, China has looked to the west as the source of the most modern and cutting-edge technologies. From the Self-Strengthening Movement in the 19th century to the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) and Made in China 2025, Chinese leaders have consistently sought to foster homegrown technologies and scientific discovery that can compete on a global stage. In 2015, Dr. Tu Youyou became China’s first Nobel Laureate in science after her breakthrough in malaria treatments that has saved millions of lives. Yet at the same time, China is plagued by numerous technological challenges; from the lackluster performance of its chipmakers to protecting air quality, it still lags behind the industrialized west. How has China’s uneven emergence as a technological player shaped the Sino-American relationship? Nancy Liu and Lawrence Sullivan, the authors of the Historical Dictionary of Science and Technology in Modern China, addressed this question in a discussion with the National Committee on November 8, 2017.

Nancy Liu

Nancy Liu is the recipient of a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular pharmacology from Stony Brook State University. She is a cancer research scientist on the faculty of the College of Staten Island in the Department of Biology and the medical technology program. She previously worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and the Zuckerman Research Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering. A graduate in British Literature from the Foreign Language University in Beijing, Dr. Liu has co-translated several books on China including China’s Water Crisis by Ma Jun and The River Dragon Has Come! by Dai Qing.

Lawrence R. Sullivan

With a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan where he studied with Professors Richard Solomon, Michel Oksenberg, and Harriet Mills, Lawrence R. Sullivan is an emeritus professor, Adelphi University. He also taught at Wellesley College, Brown University, Miami University, Ohio, and the University of Michigan. He is the author of Leadership and Authority in China, 1895-1976, and the forthcoming Historical Dictionary of the Chinese Economy. He has also co-edited and co-translated many books on China, including Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary by Gao Wenqian and works of Chinese economists He Qinglian and Wu Jinglian.