Chinese Science in the U.S.: The Importance of Face-to-Face Meetings in Scientific Collaborations in the End of the Cold War
The lengthy and complex visa processes that have been created because of the heightened suspicion are beginning to discourage some Chinese scientists from visiting Western countries. “I have colleagues who spent six months waiting to get a visa for a conference,” says Shu. The political issues are having a significant influence on scientific collaboration. The last few years have been like a new cold war.
Earlier this year, Simon resigned from his job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in protest against what he saw as the university’s restrictive policies on Chinese collaborations. He told Times Higher Education (THE) that he had faced undue bureaucracy when organizing research trips to China, had been stopped from taking students to visit the country, and that the university had tried to shut down an informal policy discussion that he had arranged between colleagues and Chinese embassy staff. The university told THE that it was very serious in protecting US academic research from improper foreign influence and that it had a fast commitment to this.
There was a drop in US-China collaboration in the beginning of the pre-pandemic era, which was found by bothWagner andFreeman.
The importance of these kinds of personal relationship is clear in US–China collaborations according to Richard Freeman of Harvard University. A number of Chinese authors are found in 78.5% of collaborative US– China papers, either working as a scientist at a US institution or having studied in the United States. It is clear that the disruption of the flu will have an effect on collaborations for some time.
Although virtual collaboration took off during the flu season, face-to-face meetings are still very important for international scientific collaboration, says the director of international scientific collaboration at the Ohio State University. “My research shows that 90% of international collaborations begin face-to-face, when people meet at conferences, research centres, or during visiting professorships,” she says. The partnerships begin virtually.
China Overtook the United States last year in the Nature Index: A Watershed Moment for Chinese Science and for the Human Development in the Context of the World
The Chinese Scholarship Council, a non-profit organization run by the Chinese Ministry of Education, which pays for many Chinese academics to spend time as visiting scholars abroad, also paused funding during the pandemic, says Shu. It will take time for the number of Chinese scholars visiting the West to recover.
“The trend began prior to the pandemic, but you can’t dismiss COVID-19 as having an impact on anything and everything,” says Denis Simon, former executive vice-chancellor of Duke Kunshan University in Suzhou, China.
When China overtook the United States in the Nature Index for contributions to natural-sciences research articles last year, it marked a watershed moment for the database and for Chinese science. The share of authors from a specific location has been rising in China since the index was launched. China led the world in terms of share, with a Share of 19,373, an increase of 21% from the previous year. The US share was 17,610, which was the same as the previous year.
One of the main incentives for researchers is to do what it takes to get on with the job. Researchers are also operating in a larger context. The UN Human Development Report says that the world is in a new uncertainty complex, and that research is vital to the search for solutions. Both China and the United States need to work on the same issues. Their twin paths ultimately need to become one.
The first world-first climate agreement signed with China: Implications for the future of Chinese-European scientific ties in light of Biden’s meeting
China has also been looking to work more closely with Europe. Officials, including Hou Jianguo, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, toured the continent last month in a bid to improve ties.
The scientific dialogue between China and the West is beginning to get back to normal, but there are signs that there will be a divergence. The meeting this month between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping seemed to suggest a constructive approach to relations is returning. The event took place in California, a state that in October signed a world-first agreement with China to deepen their collaboration on climate research and policy.