China’s State Key Laboratory System

Abstract

China’s State Key Laboratory system drives innovation in science and technology. These labs conduct cutting-edge basic and applied research, attract and train domestic and foreign talent, and conduct academic exchanges with foreign counterparts. This report assesses trends in the research priorities, management structures, and talent recruitment efforts of nearly five hundred Chinese State Key Labs. The accompanying data visualization maps their geographical locations and host institutions.

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“…95 PRC's State Key Labs and Defense Key Labs PRC's state key labs and defense key labs are generally hosted by academic institutions, CAS institutes, or private companies (including SOEs). 96 Most state key labs (SKLs) were preexisting laboratories or facilities that applied for and were granted SKL status. SKL status generally comes with a dedicated stream of funding from a government agency, usually the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, or the CAS.…”

“…SKL status generally comes with a dedicated stream of funding from a government agency, usually the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, or the CAS. 97 There are hundreds of these labs throughout the PRC, and they tend to focus on relatively narrow subject areas or problems. PRC's SASTIND oversees a parallel system of defense key labs, also mostly hosted at existing research institutions or companies.…”

The PRC’s Domestic Approach

“…Modeled loosely on the U.S. innovation ecosystem comprising national labs, federally-funded research and development centers, and university-affiliated research centers, SKLs have evolved to become critical building blocks in China's innovation ecosystem. 34 A number of government ministries, most prominently the Ministry of Education, are responsible for managing SKLs, which the state relies on to conduct cutting-edge research, recruit personnel and talent, and carry out academic exchanges within and outside China across the life sciences, engineering, information, and material sciences.…”

“…In light of these facts, they could pose serious research security issues for international collaborators and complicate relationships with U.S. partners without clear assessments of the potential risks and benefits of partnership. 35 China is also exploring how emerging technologies and research areas might be used to make breakthrough discoveries and amplify each others' impacts using methods like industrial clustering of research facilities. For example, governments at the state, provincial, and local levels have experimented with physically co-locating AI and biotechnology research facilities to ease interdisciplinary collaboration.…”

The PRC’s Efforts Abroad

“…They could pose serious research security issues for academic researchers hoping to collaborate with Chinese partners. 20 Finally, relationships between Chinese private sector firms, universities, and foreign companies offer another route by which the PRC gets insights and knowledge from abroad. For example, Chinese Ministry of Education documents indicated the existence of training programs and partnerships between the China-based subsidiaries of Autodesk, Dell, Google, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, National Instruments, Rockwell Automation, Synopsys, Tektronix, and Texas Instruments, and the "Seven Sons of National Defense" universities.…”