Lee Woo-keun, professor of semiconductor convergence engineering at Sungkyunkwan University. Photo=Professor Lee Woo-keun
China has been implementing the “Thousand Talents Plan,” a talent recruitment strategy, since 2008. The approach draws world-class researchers to China by offering high salaries and unlimited research funding. But this endeavor did not begin overnight. China had already been preparing research and development (R&D) infrastructure capable of attracting researchers since the 1980s.
In an interview with the Seoul Economic Daily on the 2nd, Lee Woo-geun, a professor of semiconductor convergence engineering at Sungkyunkwan University, explained that China’s advanced-technology and basic-science development plans, known as the “863 and 973 Projects,” have continued for decades, creating the soil for China to stand up to the United States. Lee is a semiconductor expert who served as a professor at China’s Tsinghua University for nearly 20 years before returning to Korea last year.
Indeed, one of China’s most notable characteristics is that once a science policy is created, it continues for decades. “It was very impressive to see science and technology policies made in the 1980s and 1990s pushed forward for over decades, being supplemented and developed without interruption,” he recalled. This means that even in 2006, when Lee left his job at IBM in the United States and accepted a professorship at Tsinghua University to settle in China, state-led technology development plans had already been operating for more than 10 to 20 years.
The 863 Plan, launched with the approval of former Chinese President Deng Xiaoping in March 1986, was introduced with the goal of narrowing the advanced-technology gap with developed countries such as the United States, Germany, and Japan. Its core is rapidly industrializing research achievements from university sites, centered on fields such as information technology (IT), semiconductors, bio, new materials, automobiles, and aerospace. The 973 Plan, drafted in March 1997, focused on nurturing basic science. It supports mid- to long-term research projects to secure original technologies in fields such as basic physics, new materials, and life sciences.
The two policies were integrated into the “National Key Research and Development Program” starting in 2016 and continue to this day. Unlike Korea, which is busy drawing up new long-term strategies every time a government changes, China has been able to challenge U.S. hegemony so quickly thanks to properly functioning mid- to long-term strategies, according to Lee’s diagnosis. In fact, the Thousand Talents Plan was also an expanded implementation in 2008 of the “Hundred Talents Plan,” which was first introduced in the 1990s.
Lee explained that various policies at the education level support China’s technological hegemony. “The 985 Project, introduced in May 1998, is a policy to create world-class universities in China. There is also the ‘C9 League,’ a Chinese version of the Ivy League nurturing program,” Lee said. “Above all, the ‘Double First-Class’ policy that began in 2017 was impressive.” The Double First-Class policy is a uniquely Chinese approach that goes beyond focusing only on the overall comprehensive ranking of a university, as in Korea, and instead aims for first-class universities and first-class departments at the same time. “When I began teaching at Tsinghua University, the global rankings of Seoul National University and Tsinghua University were similar, at around 40th,” Lee stressed. “But Tsinghua’s ranking has risen every year and is now around 15th in the world, while Seoul National’s position remains the same. Tsinghua also has a considerable number of departments ranked in the world’s top 10 by major.”
Lee believes China is also efficiently carrying out policies to nurture next-generation players in advanced technology fields such as semiconductors. “China has a policy called ‘Xinchuang.’ When a Chinese company localizes a particular semiconductor, government agencies purchase a certain amount,” Lee said. “It helps generate early revenue while the state also serves as a testbed to actually verify and improve the product.” This is in the same vein as how, thanks to the government’s use of Korean-language software in the 1990s, it was possible to counter Microsoft Word. “Investing is good, but helping companies generate stable revenue and build self-sufficiency is also a wise strategy,” Lee said. “At recent semiconductor conferences, there is growing consensus among experts that such policies are needed.”
Lee holds that this approach plays a particularly important role in nurturing system semiconductors. “China has as many as 4,000 fabless companies, and Taiwan has MediaTek, a company that ranks among the world’s top five, holding its ground, while Korea’s system semiconductor ecosystem is too weak,” Lee stressed. “The U.S. company Broadcom also rose to its current position after a single professor founded it based on cable modem patents and then acquired and merged with various companies. In fabless, it is important to create an environment where diverse companies can flourish.” His advice is that while a small number of companies with unrivaled technology are key in memory semiconductor and foundry manufacturing, in fabless and system semiconductors, the key is nurturing new companies so that diverse ideas can be attempted.