The moon is the limit for good reason
- By Guo Xia
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E-mail China Daily, December 13, 2013
China's moon mission will encourage similar developments. To send a rover to the moon, China needed more powerful and innovative propellers, highly effective non-fossil fuel and securely functional high-capacity nuclear battery. This expedited research and development, whose results could also be applied for civil use.
Technological advancement has acquired great strategic significance for China. Facing an aging population and rising labor cost, China cannot rely on labor-intensive industries forever; it has to upgrade its industries.
As Premier Li Keqiang said after taking office in March, China needs "an upgraded version" of its economy. And the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) also stresses that China will develop into an "innovative country".
To fully realize the potential of advanced technologies like astronautics, China needs a series of reforms in other systems. It also needs to explore the market potential of supporting research in and development of modern technologies. In this regard, the market plays an important role. For example, The US financial market reacted positively to Project Apollo by offering enough financial support to high-tech programs, which helped make the program such a big success.
China shares the US' enthusiasm in developing high-end technology, but its financial market is not mature enough for the job (or challenge). China has developed "private equity" and "venture capital" investments thanks to the existence of a "growth enterprise market" within its stock market, but it still lacks "angel investment" that is widely considered a necessity to support innovative technologies.
Some companies, like Facebook, that have changed our life in the age of the Internet were supported by "angel investment" in their early stages. So China needs to reform its financial system to rally more support for business startups.
Besides, China needs to modernize its concept of industry and invest more in new industries. Light industry does serve people's daily needs and heavy industry does serve manufacturing and construction needs, but the importance of new industry based on technological upgrade and innovation cannot be overstated in the age of information. The first two still form the industrial basis of China, that's why there is an abundance of "made in China" products across the globe. To change the "made in China" label to "created in China", the country needs to develop new industries and establish a new innovation mechanism, and of course allocate more funds for R&D.
The moon probe mission may demand a huge amount of money, but it will bring great benefits to the country in the long run. It is time to look into the future instead of being blinded by prejudices.
The author is director of Hong Kong-based China Academy of Xinsheng Economy, and has a book, Uncoding Economy, to his credit. The article is an excerpt from his interview with China Daily's writer Zhang Zhouxiang.
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