China the Great.

To sjlskl: I don't agree with you absolutely. What you mentioned as "early communist era" is the most precious period after New China founded in 1949. It's the base of all the achievement now. At that time we were poor, but we catched up a lot in science and technology field. In 1949, we can produce nothing ourselves, even a tractor, a cannon, we have no contribution in modern science. Things change rapidly in "early communist era", in 1964, we have atom bomb as the fifth country, in 1965, we artificially synthesized bovine insulin as the first country, in 1976, we sent our satellite in to earth orbit as the fifth country. Actually, every field China does well in is from that time. It's the truth that during that time we were much poorer than now, but as a big country like China, GDP is not everything. Qing dynasty kept being the largest economic entity until a long time after Opium War, but everyone knew how weak it was and all countries wanted to have a large bite. That's the lesson written in blood. Opening door needs base, or robbers will break in and rob everything you have.

Maybe I have understand the topic wrongly. But what I interpret as making a contribution mean to invent something new. What you have mentioned like the atomic bomb, satellite, it is just following whatever people have done. That to me is not contribution. Indeed, many of new China's history is written with blood. But the country has come a long way and from what I have gather, I think I can truly say the sleeping dragon is about to be awaken.

Hi, sjlskl! I know what you mean. But I should say you might confuse engineering with science. Yes, in science field, ONLY the first is great, the second is soso, the third ,the fourth is nothing. But engineering is not. The first is greatest, but the followers are ALSO great if they achieve it independently. The principles of atomic bomb and rocket are easy, you can find them easily in many published books. But it's very, very difficult to actualise them. They can reflect the whole industrial level of a country. For instance, there's a scientific organization, it puts the flag of every nation who have implemented Bose-Einstein Condension (BEC) in laboratory because BEC can reflect the level of a country's experimental study. Anyway, China was not in the level of the US or Soviet Union that time, we didn't have the strengh to compete against them for the first place. What we can do is only catching up them, shorten the distance. I know those things contribute nothing to the world, but it contribute a lot to us Chinese. Not everything can be bought by money. Americans will never sell their nuclear bombs no matter how much you pay them. You may not know how many times China was threatened with nuclear attack. I heard another story from a teacher in university, we Chinese don't have the technology to probe oil under the sea, so we have to request for help from the US. But they ask for 49% of the oil if it is found by their instrument. Isn't that activity of robbers? You know how China is lacking for energy resources, so our government invest RMB 300 million to research the instrument. Actually we had less invention in early "eform and opening-up" because of the wrong guide policy of "making is less better than buying". We lost the very important concept of "standing on our own feet" which was emphasized again and again in Chairman Mao's era. Fortunately the leadership have realized it and started encouraging "Chinese invention" now. Hope this can be put into practice well.

This is a problem that is not only particular to China but to all developed and developing country. The human touch is gone and replacing it, the never ending chase for money.