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OPINION OCTOBER 16, 2026 | The Indian Eye 13

imagination of economists and West- Amid remarkable economic success,
ern commentators are the three de- Chinese society has been experi-
cades’ impressive growth rate and encing increasing inequality, envi-
the significant reduction in poverty, ronmental degradation and public
to which several factors have been health challenges.
attributed. Against this backdrop, social
These include the ‘gradualist scientists often point to Scientism as
reform approach’, which focused a fault. Chinese philosopher Guan-
on facilitating township and village gwei Ouyang argues that the post-
enterprises (TVEs) by re-allocating Mao years have been shaped by Sci-
surplus labour from agriculture to la- entism. Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of
bour-intensive light industries. Later, a “technocratic model of economic
amid rising labour costs, the govern- reform”—where society is governed
ment shifted focus to capital-inten- by engineers and professionals with
sive sectors, i.e., infrastructure, real technical expertise “to develop so-
estate and communication. In lifting cial policy and solve social problems
close to 800 million people out of ex- based on technological principles”—
treme poverty, key drivers included has only created a ‘Faustian bargain’
agricultural reforms and industrial and a pervasive moral crisis within
restructuring, including the estab- In recent years, Chinese scientific communities have had intense discussions about reformu- Chinese society.
lishment of Special Economic Zones. Recent court decisions by the
Beyond the various variables lating the essence of ‘scientific culture’ in the Chinese context. (File photo) Hangzhou Intermediate People’s
highlighted by economists in ex- Court as well as by the Guangzhou
plaining China’s remarkable growth in which, among the four pillars of the Chinese economy. Thus, describ- Intermediate People’s Court in fa-
rate over the past decades, the role modernisation, i.e., agriculture, de- ing the nature of the Chinese polit- vour of workers who have been re-
of science and technology, whether fence industry and science and tech- ical system’s influence on science placed by AI, along with compen-
through adoption or innovation, has nology, Deng Xiaoping considered and technology, sinologist Richard sation to be paid by the company to
been a primary contributor to its eco- science and technology the primary P. Suttmeir points out that although workers, indeed, reflect the impact
nomic ‘take-off’. In this regard, every element by arguing that “without the Chinese science system has loop- of technologies and growing anxiety
Chinese leadership has treated sci- modern science and technology, it is holes, strong state leadership of Sci- in Chinese society under the wave of
ence and technology as the foremost impossible to build modern agricul- ence is treated as an ‘article of faith’. automation, where human labour is
‘productive force’. ture, industry, and defence”. China’s Science policies, imple- likely to be replaced by AI and robot-
From Deng Xiaoping onward, mented by different leaderships, may ic workers.
China under Mao Chinese leadership under Jiang Ze- not be perfect, as critics continue to In recent years, Chinese scien-
Under Mao’s leadership and un- min and Hu Jintao underscored sci- point to a top-down approach, a lack tific communities have had intense
der the policy of ‘leaning to one side’ ence and technology as a productive of ‘open science’, and even accuse it of discussions about reformulating the
by aligning with the Soviet Union, force for economic development. intellectual property theft. Neverthe- essence of ‘scientific culture’ in the
China shifted scientific advancement Under current President Xi Jinping, less, the Science policies implement- Chinese context. Some have also
from the Anglo-Saxon model to the it went a step further with the prom- ed over the years have undeniably proposed drawing on traditional
Soviet model. Soviet assistance laid ulgation of ‘high-quality develop- delivered results, propelling China Chinese values to address these con-
the foundation for China’s industries, ment’ at the 19th National Congress to become one of the world’s major cerns more effectively. Thus, against
including training more than 10,000 of the CCP in 2017 and propounding scientific powerhouses. For instance, the backdrop of Chinese leadership
Chinese experts in several universi- the concept of ‘new quality produc- according to the latest Nature Index continuing to prioritise Science for
ties in the Soviet Union and Eastern tive forces’ in September 2023 as Data, which ranks institutions based development, especially in the era
European countries. Of course, un- a blueprint for Chinese economic on research articles in 145 high-qual- of promoting ‘high-quality develop-
der Mao’s leadership, China made development during the 21st centu- ity journals across the natural and ment’ through new quality produc-
notable progress, including success- ry or, in Xi terms, ‘in the new era’. health sciences, the Chinese Acad- tive forces, a critical question re-
fully testing an atomic bomb in 1964, Hence, to promote high-quality de- emy of Sciences continued to hold mains: how can the Chinese political
a hydrogen bomb and launching a velopment in China, new quality the top rank along with eight other leadership implement policies that
satellite in 1970. productive forces of advanced tech- Chinese universities in the top ten. balance material development and
But the Mao period (1957–1976) nologies like AI, semiconductors and In 2025, China made several cultural progress?
is seen as an example of “stagna- quantum computing will be the key breakthroughs in AI (DeepSeek) and
tion in technological innovation and drivers. a drug for Parkinson’s disease. The Dr Opangmeren Jamir an Associate
economic development”, primarily Tiangong Space Station was com- Fellow at the Non-Traditional Security.
because of Mao’s political ideology. Can China be Saved only by pleted in November 2022; the Zhu- His research interests include:
Because Mao believed only collec- Science? rong rover landed on Mars in May International Political Economy; Water
tive struggle could transform com- “Our nation is at risk” was the 2021; and the Chang’e-4 lunar mis- Governance; Energy Security; and
munist society, he proposed that very opening sentence in a 1983 re- sion landed in 2019, with Chang’e-5 Indigenous Rights.
‘science’ should ‘walk on two legs’, port by the National Commission on retrieving lunar surface samples to Views expressed are of the author and
meaning scientists/experts and peas- Excellence in Education to the U.S. Earth in 2020. do not necessarily reflect the views of
ants should learn from and teach Secretary of Education, proposing Indeed, exploring the relation- the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or of the
each other, eventually blurring the that, for any educational reform, ‘sci- ship between Chinese political lead- Government of India.
knowledge gap. ence education’ was one area that ership and Science is only one part
Contrary to Maoist ideology, required attention. Since the first of the story of Chinese scientific and The full version of this article first
when Deng Xiaoping came to power half of the 20th century, Chinese po- technological advancement. The im- appeared in the Comments section of
in 1978, the Marxist thought of tech- litical leadership has attached great pact of technology on Chinese soci- the website (www.idsa.in) of Manohar
nology as a productive force came importance to developing science ety, however, is another part of the Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and
to the forefront of development, for nation-building and to modernise story which cannot be overlooked. Analyses, New Delhi, on October 7, 2026

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