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China's Vice Minister of S&T at The Levin Institute's Conference on Industrial Innovation in China

The Levin Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations held a successful conference in conjunction with China's Ministry of Science and Technology on Industrial Innovation in China this July. Thirty five delegates from China were in attendance, including 10 from the Ministry itself. Vice Minister Shang Yong led the delegation. Another 20 outside experts on the Chinese system from other countries also presented papers.

The conference focused on a providing a comprehensive policy review and assessment of the operation, performance and prospects for China's industrial R&D and innovation system. While this conference could have taken place in China, it is significant that the Chinese wanted it to occur in the United States where they could share their views and research with an external audience.

Because of China's increased prominence in international and regional science and technology affairs there's been a growing need for outsiders to have a deeper, more sophisticated understanding of the structure, operation and performance of the Chinese science and technology system. A broad range of policies and programs have been put in place over the last two decades to initiate major improvements in the country's innovation system; but are they working?

This meeting evolved out of the growing need to conduct an assessment and evaluation of current policies to analyze the future course of industrial innovation in China. In addition, we want to better understand what the Chinese case might tell us about the impact of globalization on the innovation and knowledge creation processes, especially from the perspective of those polices that affect China's openness and level of interaction with other countries.

For a full schedule of the conference click here.

Materials and conversations presented at this conference will be published. Further details coming soon.

(from left to right) Garrick Utley, President, The Levin Institute; Vice Minister Shang Yong; Denis Simon, Provost and VP of Academic Affairs, The Levin Institute

Session 2 panelists