China needs to open up more to push frontiers, says scholar

He points out that its track record in tech shows authoritarian states can innovate

- Yew Lun Tian

The technological strides that China has made in recent decades show that a country under an authoritarian leadership can innovate, but it will need to open up more if it wants to push frontiers, said Harvard scholar Rana Mitter.

China is in a neck-and-neck race with the West for technological solutions to make its economy more competitive and its military more powerful.

In what has been perceived as a move to prevent its rival from getting ahead, the US has implemented measures such as levying heavy tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and restricting the export of semiconductor-making tools.

Amid this technological competition, China’s task of nurturing home-grown talent in fields including artificial intelligence and space has become more urgent.

“A major challenge for China is for it to work out how to get from where it is now to where it wants to be – where higher value-added tech jobs are a real possibility,” Professor Mitter told The Straits Times on June 21.

He is ST Lee chair in US-Asia relations at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He pointed out that China’s track record in technological advancement in the past two decades and the experience of the former Soviet Union show that it is not impossible for authoritarian states to produce scientific innovations.

“But it is clear there is a barrier to further growth if there isn’t more openness,” noted Prof Mitter, who was in Singapore for a Harvard alumni event.