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  • WORLD VIEW

Why the world must wake up to China’s science leadership

The nation’s next generation of scientists and technologists will shape the coming decades.
By
  1. Kerry Brown

    1. Kerry Brown is professor of Chinese Studies and director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London.

Two conversations have stayed with me over the past 25 years. Around 2001, a European Union official in Beijing — where I was then a UK diplomat — told a group of us that the reason countries such as Germany, France and the United Kingdom were allowing technology transfer to China was to see a day when the nation could return the favour. And, in 2017 in Austria, a retired UK security official stated wearily that if there was one constant in policymaking towards China, it was to perpetually be five to ten years behind the times.

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Nature 647, 823 (2025)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03853-4

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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