CHINA BEATING US IN SCIENCE

File: R&D Spending.png (42KB, 1602x901px) Image search: [Google]

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USA is still currently the #1 spender on R&D, but China is quickly closing the gap and at this pace will be outspending us in a few short years. This chart accounts for both private and public sources of spending, but if we look just at public spending the US outspends China by a factor of almost four ($156B vs $41B, sources below).

With that in mind we can determine that it's not a budgetary issue. Throwing more tax dollars at the problem is unlikely to help. So how can we ensure that private industry helps us retain our status as the world's science and technology leader? How do we prevent China from eclipsing us?

Sources:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/science-major-plank-china-s-new-spending-plan
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/how-science-fares-us-budget-deal
https://data.oecd.org/rd/gross-domestic-spending-on-r-d.htm