The successful launch of China's first manned spacecraft took the first place in China's scientific achievements. The development of the world's smallest nanometer motor was chosen as the number one scientific advance globally. President of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Xu Kuangdi says the world's frontier scientific and technological work is focused on planetary exploration while China as a developing country focuses its scientific advances on engineering technology.

"China is in the middle stage of industrialization. So it has a lot of large engineering projects, which are important to the revitalization of industry and infrastructure. And then the flight of China' first manned spacecraft is an example of China's prestige today."

Many of China's scientific achievements in 2003 met the needs of society and economic development. Chinese scientists developed a batch of medicine to treat SARS. They've also completed research on a SARS vaccine and will test it shortly. And a super hybrid rice developed by local scientists has produced yields of 12 thousand kilogrammes per hectare in tests.

President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lu Yongxiang says these achievements also reflect the contribution made by Chinese scientists to world scientific development.

"Chinese scientists are keeping abreast of the world's science and technology progress. Through international exchanges and cooperation, they are making more contributions to the scientific advances of human beings."

Several of the selections in the world top 10 scientific advances in 2003 were contributed to directly by Chinese scientists. Scientists from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan worked hard to help the World Health Organization to discover SARS pathogen. And Chinese scientists have also participated in the breakthrough decoding of human chromosome and in stem cell research.

(CRI January 12, 2004)