The Hill: China's surging innovation investments are a wake-up call to Congress

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Visitors are attending the 2024 Beijing International Hydrogen Energy Technology and Equipment Exhibition at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing, March 25, 2024. (Costfoto/NurPhoto/Getty Images)

China’s surging innovation investments are a wake-up call to Congress

The Hill | DAVID KAPPOS & ANDREI IANCU | 03/27/24

Beijing is accelerating its investments in science and technology. Its latest moves should be a wake-up call for lawmakers.

China’s government just announced a staggering $52 billion investment in research and development for 2024 — a 10 percent surge over the previous year. In a telling sign of priorities, science and technology funding saw the largest percentage increase of any major area of Chinese government spending — outpacing diplomacy, education and even the military.

As China’s President Xi Jinping once declared, “We must regard science and technology as our primary productive force.” He’s now making good on that pledge. A 2023 study bankrolled by the U.S. State Department found that China has vaulted to the top of the global leaderboard in critical fields like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics and biotechnology. And China has become the top worldwide recipient of patents, receiving more than double than the U.S.

China understands that its economic and geopolitical future depends on winning the 21st-century innovation race.

Yet America’s congressional leaders seem content to coast on the breakthroughs of the past, even as our competitiveness declines.

Consider the findings of the newly-released C4IP Congressional Innovation Scorecard, which grades every member of Congress based on voting records, bill sponsorship, and public advocacy efforts related to advancing U.S. innovation. The results paint a picture of indifference, complacency and neglect: Nearly 70 percent of members of Congress received a grade of “C” or “C-,” indicating “only a passing interest” in policies to strengthen U.S. intellectual property (IP) protections, which are crucial to cutting-edge innovation.

This is simply an abdication of responsibility...more
https://thehill.com/opinion/4557607-chinas-surging-innovation-investments-are-a-wake-up-call-to-congress/

The US is Rome all over again. Americans in the last few decades have a difficult time learning from history, throwing trillion$ at global hegemony while the nation sinks into the abyss.

The Romans of 59 bc were unaware they lived in a period now known as the “Late Roman Republic.” The same will be true of whatever time historians of the future refer to as the “Late American Republic.”
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/03/donald-trump-julius-caesar-433956