At a time when Western market economies are struggling with ways of directing and stimulating technological innovation, China, with a highly centralized system for the planning and coordination of science and technology, offers an unusual perspective on the feasibility and operations of a...

China's re-emergence has been treated mostly from economic and political standpoints. This article integrates these perspectives with a review of China's modern history of research and development (R&D). It starts with a brief retrospective of China's efforts in science and technology before the...