In a recent technology evaluation of major countries announced by Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT, Korea was evaluated as clearly lagging behind China, which is shocking. Based on the United States, the European Union (EU) was rated at 94.7%, Japan at 86.4%, China at 82.6%, and Korea at 81.5%. In 2020, Korea and China were both analyzed to be 3.3 years behind the United States, but in this evaluation, China (3 years) narrowed the gap with the United States more than Korea (3.2 years).
The problem is that in the strategic technology sector, which can be considered a future industry, Korea is inferior to China in most areas, such as secondary batteries, semiconductors, displays, and hydrogen, and especially in artificial intelligence (AI) and next-generation communications, where competition between countries is fierce. In fields such as , quantum, aerospace, and maritime, the country is significantly behind China, adding to the seriousness of the situation.
China's progress was a predictable result
China's rapid progress can be said to be a somewhat expected result, considering that China is moving away from past imitation and is focusing its efforts on technological innovation. Recognizing that China's future depends on technological innovation, the Chinese government is leading the development of key technologies by linking government research institutes, academia, large corporations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and even defense-related organizations, and is pouring enormous manpower and resources into it. . In particular, following the technology war between the US and China, China regards the current situation as an emergency and is pouring all its capabilities into technological development.
In the field of AI, which is receiving the most attention these days, China is considered the only country that can compete with the United States. This is because China already announced its 'Next Generation AI Development Plan' in 2017, making AI an arena for future international competition and economic development. This is the result of tremendous efforts made to develop AI, with the expectation that it will become a new engine for AI. The government is taking the lead in promoting detailed utilization plans in each industry, including manufacturing, logistics, commerce, finance, and agriculture, by establishing infrastructure, establishing development plans, and establishing annual strategic goals. 
Pay close attention to China's industrial policy
Looking at the above results, it appears that China is achieving the desired results despite the US ban on technology transfer. There may be many reasons, but broadly speaking, it can be seen as the Chinese government's consistent industrial policy and consumers' rapid adaptation.
First, in the early days of opening, the Chinese government created large-scale protective barriers. A representative example is the protective barrier that China built in the 1990s, the so-called ‘Great Firewall’. The reason for building this firewall was because there were concerns that China would lose its ability to control information, which would restrict many American internet platform companies from entering China, creating a space for Chinese startups to breathe and develop. It achieved unexpected results. Initially, Google, Facebook (now Meta), Twitter, etc. were active for several years in the early days and then left, but Amazon and Airbnb, which entered the market later, immediately exited the Chinese market.
On the other hand, Chinese entrepreneurs and scientists avoided the firewall and continued exchanges with technologically advanced countries such as the United States, thereby promoting the flow of advanced technologies and innovative systems into the Chinese ecosystem. This situation has recently become an opportunity for the United States to disallow technological exchanges with China, and in the future, China will have no choice but to pursue independent technological development and is expected to invest more resources and manpower.
In China, once a specific industry or field is selected as a national key technology, each sector exerts all its efforts and cooperates to achieve the goal. For example, for the aforementioned AI development, transportation authorities are investing large amounts of money into creating autonomous driving pilot programs, each local government investing in AI accelerators, universities investing in machine learning, and police investing in cutting-edge surveillance systems. What is worth noting is that although some projects may have failed during the technology development process and may be economically inefficient, it appears that the desired results are being achieved in terms of achieving technological tasks. China does not seem to mind project failure at all, believing that even failed projects produce a synergy effect in terms of overall scientific and technological development.
Meanwhile, consumers who quickly and flexibly accept cutting-edge technologies and products produced by innovative entrepreneurs and the rapid changes that result from them also play a role. Over the past 30 years, while most countries' GDP (gross domestic product) has increased less than 10 times, China's GDP has increased more than 30 times. As China has experienced tremendous changes, Chinese consumers have adapted to the changes in order to survive. One example is that in China, even beggars do not accept cash, but instead scan QR codes to receive money through WeChat Pay or Alipay. This well explains why in China, 1.2 billion WeChat Pay transactions occur per day, while Apple Pay occurs 1 billion transactions per month.
How China's Technological Leaps Affect Us
China's technological superiority is expected to be a huge burden on us. The Korea-China trade balance already turned into a deficit last year. There are some temporary factors, but mainly it is because the competitive edge of our products has disappeared due to China's technological development. Last year, Korea's exports to China decreased by 20%, while its imports from China decreased by only 8%, resulting in a trade deficit with China of $18 billion (about 23.7 trillion won).
Technology is a measure of competitiveness between countries. The fact that China's technology evaluation is superior to ours means that we are more likely to import from China than to export to China in the future. This means that Korea's trade deficit with China will become entrenched, and more broadly, it means that Korea and China, global manufacturing powers, will engage in a fierce battle for market share in the global market.
Considering the competitiveness of our products without any other factors, there is a high possibility that we will lose our market to China in the global export market. In particular, our inferiority in future technology means that our inferiority will continue for a long time.
Our government may not be able to do something like China, which operates almost like a planned economy system, but we need to more clearly present the direction we should take with a future-oriented, macroscopic perspective on national science and technology development. In particular, the government's role is said to be significant in the field of basic technology, which is difficult for individual companies to handle.
Specifically, it is very important to steadily expand the proportion of research and development (R&D) to GDP and to use R&D costs efficiently in terms of improving efficiency compared to expenditures. As China has enormous human and material resources, including a huge budget and over 40% of science and engineering graduates, it is imperative that we use our limited resources efficiently in order to compete with China. Technical cooperation between large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises is also important. Additionally, I think it would be a good idea for the government to build a technological cooperation infrastructure so that R&D cooperation between government research institutes, universities, and companies can occur smoothly.
