Leading Russian chemist and materials scientist Artem Oganov, who received China’s top international science and technology award, said the honour from the world’s No 1 science power was a sign he was “on the right track”.
Oganov, a distinguished professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology in Moscow and long-time China collaborator, and eight other experts were awarded the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a ceremony in Beijing last week.
After Oganov visited China in 2008, he told colleagues and friends in Europe that the country was “on the way” to being No 1 in both industry and science, but said this was met with scepticism at the time.
MY COMMENTS: Too many people around the world are not even aware that China is a super modern, super advanced and super scientific society. And they are just getting started.
Deng Xiaoping, China's de facto leader from 1978 to 1992, began China's Four Modernisations in ernest.
China's Four Modernizations were first proposed by Zhou Enlai, not by Deng Xiaoping.
- 1963 – Zhou Enlai first outlined the idea of modernizing four key sectors of China's economy.
- 1975 – At the Fourth National People's Congress, Zhou formally presented the Four Modernizations as China's long-term development strategy.
- 1978 – After emerging as China's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping made the Four Modernizations the centerpiece of China's "Reform and Opening Up" policy and began implementing them on a large scale.
The Four Modernizations are:
- Agriculture
- Increase food production and farmers' incomes.
- Introduce more efficient farming methods and reduce collective farming.
- The later "household responsibility system" gave farming families much greater control over production.
- Industry
- Modernize factories, improve productivity, and introduce advanced technology.
- Encourage foreign investment and joint ventures.
- National Defense
- Modernize the armed forces with better equipment, training, and technology.
- Shift from a large but outdated military to a more capable modern force.
- Science and Technology
- Expand universities and research institutions.
- Train scientists and engineers.
- Import foreign technology and send students abroad for advanced education.
These reforms dramatically reshaped China. Over the following decades:
- Hundreds of millions of people were lifted out of poverty.
- China became one of the world's largest manufacturing economies.
- Special Economic Zones such as Shenzhen Special Economic Zone became laboratories for market-oriented reforms.
- China emerged as a major exporter and later as a global leader in areas such as high-speed rail, telecommunications, and renewable energy.
A phrase closely associated with Deng Xiaoping's implementation of these ideas is:
"It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."
This expressed his pragmatic view that policies should be judged by whether they worked, rather than by whether they were considered purely socialist or capitalist. While versions of this saying predated him, Deng made it famous as a guiding principle for economic reform.
MY COMMENTS: China made the correct turn in the road.
