269 The value of’ zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA technology A survey of the Chinese theoretical debate d its policy implications * Erik BAARK Institute of Economics and Planning Roskilde University Center, P.O. Box 264 4000 Roskilde, Denmark zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXW Final version received January 1988 In recent years the post-Mao political leader- ship has initiated a major reform of the research and development system in the People’s Republic of China (hereinafter: China). The essence of this reform is to facilitate the diffusion of technology and to invigorate scientific and technical work in the vast network sf research organizations which has been created since the 1950s. 0ne of the most noteworthy aspect of this reform is the endorse- ment of the concept of technology as a commod- ity. ’ For more than three decades, the results of domestic research and development-new tech- nology-were transferred at no cost from research institutes to production units in China. This pro- cedure appears to have led to a situation where few R&D results were actually disseminated. The l The research conducted for this article has been supported through a research project grant from the Danish Social Science Research Council (J. nr. 14-4147 and 14-4442) and a travel grant from Knud Hojgaards Fond. I am also grateful to the Director of the Universities Service Center in Hong Kong, John Dolphin, for giving me the opportunity of using the facilities of the center during the preparation of this paper, and to an anonymous referee of this journal for very useful comments. ’ The Chinese term for the concept is jishu shangpinhua. which literally means “the commoditization of technology”. Another translation, more widely used, is “commercializa- tion of technology*‘. It is important, however, to distinguish the Chinese concept of commercialization from ihe conven- tional meaning associated with the word in the West, where the “term commercialization is used to designate the transi- tion from R&D results to a product or service sold and used in economically significant quantities’* [8, p.101. Research Policy i7 (1988) 269-282 North-Holland concept of techno]ogy as a commodity has there- fore been officially recognized in order to encour- age commercialized transfer of technologies. 2 The quantitative impact of the new policy is by no means insignificant as the nation-wide technology trade, which followed the official promulgation of the new policy in 1985, hti been estimated at 2.3 billon yuan [2j. The significance of the concept of technology as a commodity is related to the nature of the CG=aWa ~fl;~~&-n **A #Prh*nl*mrrrr&pm pis sV&_ LIUIWti 3tifiw1aWW VU .uv-“X”bJ Y,*cWIu. tern has been based on the Soviet principle oi”a strict division of labour between the units perfor- ming research and development and those under- taking production. In practical terms, this has led to the formation of a large body of “independent” research institutes which includes almost 5000 state-operated research units, employing some 230,000 qualified scientists. 2 A Ezi; official promulgation of the concept was provided in the “Decision of the Central Committee on the Communist Party of China on the Reform of the science and Technol- ogy Management System” (361, adopted 13 March 1985 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China which reads, inter alia: “We should promote the commercialization of techno- logical achievements and exploit the technology market so as to suit the needs of the development of the socialist corn-- modity economy. Science and technology are primarily the product of mental laborer. and the value it creates should be properly assessed and fully recognized. Along with the ad- zyxwvutsr vance bf science and technology, technology plays an in- creasingly important role in creating the value of commod- ities and more and more technologies have become intellect- ual commodities in their own right. Thus an intellectual industry has emerged as a new trade. The technology market con&tu@s an essentiai component of China’s socialist com- modity market.” 0048-7333/88,/S3.50 Q 1988, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland)