The rise of China’s collaboration with Western Universities in the 21st century: Implications for the future of science and higher education in the United States
At the same time, there is ample evidence pointing towards a narrowing in terms of China’s international research collaboration with Western nations, especially the United States. The supplement states that there are numerous reasons, including political tensions and the interruption of scientific networking, as they explain in the comment article. Global higher-education trends, meanwhile, point towards China becoming more self-confident in its ability to train the researchers of the future, instead of needing support from Western universities. These trends are not necessarily related to isolation. China is linking up with new research nations in Asia and Africa. The centre of gravity has shifted and it is certain that whatever direction China takes next will affect science for a long time to come.
Its adjusted Share was less than one-third of the United States’ score, but it took account of yearly changes in article volume. But year-on-year rises of between 8% and 21% (apart from 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when growth stalled) have seen it reach the top spot.
Contrary to popular belief, the papers that come out of China show a high level of innovation, contrary to the reputation of relying on imitation to produce large numbers of papers. Wagner co-authored a 2020 study1 that tracked the percentage of papers that included references to journals in other disciplines, a sign of more creative research that is attempting to cross disciplinary boundaries. The analysis shows that papers with at least one China-based co-author are more likely than others to stretch these boundaries. “Not only were they doing good quality work, they were also doing novel work,” says Wagner.
The United States and China are, despite the downturn in collaborations, still the two largest science powerhouses, with long-term and intense partnerships. They are likely to remain top collaborators in the short to medium term, but China’s networks might be more diversified. China has been establishing partnerships with other countries outside of the big Western powers. Efforts have included government-led programmes, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, which aim at improving links with countries across Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America. Government collaborated agreements, funding and investment, infrastructure building and mobility programmes are included in activities. As of 2020, students from Belt and Road countries accounted for 46.9% of all international students studying in China.
China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, which sets specific development goals for the period 2021–25 and describes the country’s longer-term vision for 2035, puts a strong emphasis on technological innovation, highlighting recent successes in lunar exploration, supercomputing, quantum information and high-speed trains. It would be great if national laboratories were to focus on networks, energy systems, pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence and other fields.
China is a leader in the field of artificial intelligence. Stanford University’s Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2023 found that China accounted for nearly 40% of all publications in AI in 2021, far exceeding the United Kingdom and Europe (15%) and the United States (10%). Papers from China accounted for 29% of all AI citations in 2021, which again puts it ahead of the United Kingdom and Europe (21.5%) and the United States (15%). China ranked second to the United States in a 2022 assessment of AI and robotics articles in the Nature Index, but its annual Share rose more than 1,100% between 2015 and 2021, significantly outpacing the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Projects that tackle green energy and pollution in China have made rapid progress.
Its efforts are paying off. Air quality has improved in cities since China declared a war on pollution. The biggest effect has been the upgrade to coal-fired power plants, according to the atmospheric scientist from Tsinghua University in Beijing. A 2019 study by Zhang and his colleagues analysed the main drivers of a recent decline in fine particulate matter in China, and is among the top-cited papers with Chinese authors in the Nature Index for that year (Q. Zhang et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 24463–24469; 2019).
In a 2022 paper2, Shu and his co-authors questioned the real-world implications of the publishing reforms. Chinese researchers have been bristling at the high expectations of the previous evaluation system, but they are not confident that the new guidelines will really alter the way in which promotion decisions are made.
Anna Lisa Ahlers, head of a China-focused research group at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, stated that the political signals in China have reduced motivation to go abroad.
Worsening relations with the United States are a major factor in pushing Chinese students to consider other options for their education, says Xiaofeng Wan, associate dean of admission and coordinator of international recruitment at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. “Chinese families are really concerned about throwing all of their eggs into one basket, which is the United States,” he says. “Everything is signalling to them that things can change fast, in a very negative direction for Chinese students.”
By 2022, under the Belt and Road Initiative, China had established formal scientific partnerships with 84 countries, funded 1,118 collaborative projects and established 53 joint laboratories in areas such as new energy and health. Co-authored papers between China, the European Union, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development grew by only 1.2 times during the time period from 2006 to 2011. China and Africa had the highest growth ratio, followed by China and Latin America and China and Belt and Road countries.
In late 2019, Tian applied to 15 PhD programmes from around the world, with the United Kingdom as her preferred location. She left the United States off of her list due to China’s tense relationship with the country.
She received a bachelor’s degree and a PhD from two different universities, one of which was the University of Cambridge, UK. She’s working on a PhD at Hong Kong University. Wang says she had hoped to undertake a second postdoc in Australia, Europe or the United States, but the pandemic changed everything. “Due to travel restrictions in mainland China, I wouldn’t be able to travel back home easily,” she says. Wang says his long-term career plan is to stay in Hong Kong despite the easing of restrictions.
Despite the lack of Chinese government data, there are signs that more Chinese students are choosing to enrol in schools nearer to home, says Ye Liu, who studies international development at King’s College London. She believes the Pandemic is part of the reason, but other factors like an increase in anti-China sentiment in some countries and a rise in tension between China and the West also affect students’ preferences.
Repercussions might affect US universities. For every 1,000 PhDs that have been denied by the US government, US institutions will lose nearly US$1 billion in tuition fees, and an estimated $210 billion in patents over the next decade, according to a 2021 analysis from the US National Foundation for American Policy. The Chinese students contribute an estimated $15.9 Billion to the US economy every year, according to an analysis by the IIE.
Macau offers students from the Chinese mainland a more open culture and a close relationship to home, Zweig says. Macau’s universities are not ranked as highly as Hong Kong’s; the University of Macau, for example, is ranked 117th among Chinese institutions in the Nature Index. Studying in Macau does come with the benefit of not requiring the gaokao, however, which is a standardized exam that’s mandatory for mainland Chinese university admittance. The exam is getting more difficult says a researcher at the University of Macau. In the past few years, more mainland students are coming to Macau because of that.