In recent years, China has vigorously promoted scientific and technological innovation, which has attracted great attention from the international community. Recently, foreign experts wrote in The China Journal that China promotes development through innovation and improves people’s living standards.
Promoting development through innovation
Otto Solis Fallas, a professor at IE Business School in Spain and a former special adviser to the Costa Rican President, wrote in The China Journal that unlike other developing economies, China’s economic structure is not dominated by agriculture and extractive industries. In 2022, the added value of China’s manufacturing industry accounted for 27.7% of GDP, which was even higher than that of the United States. In fact, China also has great advantages in the field of high-tech industries. For example, the export of high-tech products in China accounts for about 30% of the national foreign trade export, which is higher than that in the United States.
The article further analyzes that the development of science and technology in China is not only reflected in the trade data and structure, but also in the widespread use of high-tech products in daily life. Nowadays, online shopping occupies a dominant position in the retail and wholesale markets in China. Like western developed economies, China consumers rarely use cash in shopping, and most transactions are completed through mobile applications such as Alipay and WeChat.
Compared with its main economic competitors, China has a broader scientific and technological prospect. In 2022, China surpassed the United States in the number of patent applications, trademark applications and industrial design applications.
In the final analysis, China’s becoming a big trading country is based on its high-standard education system, its emphasis on R&D and high-tech industries, and the strategic and pragmatic role played by the government in economic development.
Improving people’s living standards through innovation
Christine Buel, editor-in-chief of the French newspaper New Reunion, visited China for the first time in 1994. She recently wrote in the China Journal that in the next 30 years, China has made many scientific and technological breakthroughs in space exploration, and its economic development has advanced by leaps and bounds, which has amazed the world.
In the social and economic field, the average life expectancy in China has increased from 35 years before the founding of New China to 78.2 years in 2022, and people’s living standards have been continuously improved. In addition, China’s per capita GDP has increased from $195 in 1980 to $12,720 in 2022.
These data are enough to show that there is a direct link between innovation-driven high-quality development and the improvement of people’s living standards. Introducing high technology into production, allowing machines to complete some work, can reduce costs.
Taking Xinjiang as an example, the article points out that the strategy of developing the western region since 2000 and the "the belt and road initiative" initiative in recent years have promoted the development of Xinjiang. Buel went to Jiashi County, Xinjiang.
Thanks to drip irrigation technology, the fruit yield in Jiashi County has been greatly improved. The newly introduced fresh-keeping technology has improved the fruit preservation rate and the living standard of fruit farmers. With the newly introduced refrigeration system and technology, the sales time of plums has been extended, and the unsold part can be made into dried fruits and sold at a good price.
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