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Chinese President Meets World Famous Scientists
Chinese President Meets World Famous Scientists
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President Jiang Zemin said Saturday that in the intense international competition, China is facing an arduous task of improving its economic structure, making rational use of resources, protecting the ecological environment, promoting rational development between different regions, improving the quality of its population and doing all it can to completely eliminate poverty.
"The key is to make endeavors to develop China's science and technology to provide momentum and guarantee for economic growth and social progress," the Chinese president said while meeting this afternoon with six world well-known scientists in the seaside resort of Beidaihe, about 300 kilometers east of Beijing.
He said that China will implement the strategy of reinvigorating the nation through science and education and the strategy of sustainable development. China will also establish and improve national innovation systems, train talented people and actively employ overseas talent, improve the scientific and cultural level of the entire Chinese nation, encourage the Chinese people to be more aware of the role of science in society and do more to translate scientific and technological results into productive forces.
The six scientists are five Nobel Prize laureates: Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee, Samuel C.C. Ting, laureates of the Nobel Prize for Physics, and Rudolph A. Marcus, awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1992 and Hartmut Michel, a German who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988, as well as Shing-Tung Yau who was awarded the Fields Prize in 1983. They are all foreign academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Jiang said that scientific ethics will be becoming more and more prominent in the 21st century. The key question is that scientific and technological progress should serve mankind, the lofty cause of world peace, development and progress, and should not harm mankind.
A major question which should be solved in the 21st century is to establish and improve scientific ethics, respect and protect intellectual property rights, and guide scientific and technological research and application to accord with the common interests of people all over the world, he added.
The six scientists are in China for a three-day academic exchanges with Chinese researchers at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Jiang said that he was very glad to meet them in Beidaihe, saying that they are world famous scientists and have achieved outstanding successes in their respective fields of research.
The Chinese leader expressed his heartfelt thanks to the six scientists who have done a great deal of work in helping China's scientific research, training China's scientific and technical talent, especially young scientific and technical talent, and promoting the exchanges and cooperation between Chinese scientists and their foreign counterparts.
He said he is ready to hear their views on the development of science and technology in today's world as well as their suggestions on the development of China's science and technology, especially high technology.
The six scientists briefed Jiang on a wide range of issues concerning the development of science and technology around the world, new developments in knowledge, the development of China's science and technology, and the training of young scientific personnel.
Jiang said that scientific ethics will be becoming more and more prominent in the 21st century. The key question is that scientific and technological progress should serve mankind, the lofty cause of world peace, development and progress, and should not harm mankind.
A major question which should be solved in the 21st century is to establish and improve scientific ethics, respect and protect intellectual property rights, and guide scientific and technological research and application to accord with the common interests of people all over the world, he added.
The six scientists are in China for a three-day academic exchanges with Chinese researchers at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Jiang said that he was very glad to meet them in Beidaihe, saying that they are world famous scientists and have achieved outstanding successes in their respective fields of research.
The Chinese leader expressed his heartfelt thanks to the six scientists who have done a great deal of work in helping China's scientific research, training China's scientific and technical talent, especially young scientific and technical talent, and promoting the exchanges and cooperation between Chinese scientists and their foreign counterparts.
He said he is ready to hear their views on the development of science and technology in today's world as well as their suggestions on the development of China's science and technology, especially high technology.
The six scientists briefed Jiang on a wide range of issues concerning the development of science and technology around the world, new developments in knowledge, the development of China's science and technology, and the training of young scientific personnel.
President Jiang pointed out that in the 20th century, science and technology witnessed enormous and rapid progress. Scientific concept made further progress and civilization made unprecedented achievements.
He noted that such achievements in science and technology, including the theory of relativity, the quantum theory, the genetic theory and the information theory, have not only added new knowledge and strong impetus to humans' efforts to gain correct perception of the nature and the development of productivity, but also greatly advanced society and had a profound influence on political, economic and cultural lives of the humans.
He said that at present, the development of science and technology has advanced to the scope of a elementary particle in the field of the physical sciences, to the level of molecules in the field of life sciences and to the stage of brain and cognitive science in the field of ideological sciences.
"This represents the splendid achievements that the mankind has made in the 20th century and indicates the development of science and technology in the 21st century," he said.
President Jiang said that science and technology have become the most innovative driving force of economic growth and social progress.
Speaking about the prospects of the development of science and technology in the 21st century, Jiang said that science and technology will make faster and more far-reaching progress and will definitely have more profound impact on the development of society and mankind.
"We should fully assess the great role that science and technology will play in the development of economy and society in the future," he said.
Noting that information and life sciences will be the most vigorous, fastest growing and most widely influencing fields in the 21st century, Jiang said that breakthroughs will continue to be made in biological technology, new materials, advanced manufacturing technology, clean and efficient fuels, aviation and space technology and environmental protection.
Jiang said that in the next century, mankind will continue to explore outer space, oceans and the depth of the earth and pay greater attention to the harmonious development of mankind, nature and society. President Jiang said that advance of modern science and technology has opened up many new fields that were unimaginable in the past. For example, there are now proton, biological and quantum computer researchers.
He noted that in the next century, scientific research should place greater importance on global issues that are directly related to the fate and future of human beings, focusing on inter-disciplinary studies in particular. Scientific research should make further progress on the origin of matter, the integration and unification of systems and further promote closer ties with science and technology.
Noting that science and technology know no borders, he said that study of space, life and origin of the physical world needs great amount of human, material and financial resources that exceed the scope of strength of any single nation. Therefore, greater efforts should be made to enhance international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation.
He noted that in the next century, scientific research should place greater importance on global issues that are directly related to the fate and future of human beings, focusing on inter- disciplinary studies in particular. Scientific research should make further progress on the origin of matter, the integration and unification of systems and further promote closer ties with science and technology.
President Jiang pointed out that as the largest developing country in the world with inadequate per capita resources and unbalanced development, China faces the arduous task of modernization that requires long-term hard work.
"We are drafting the tenth five-year plan that will guide the economic and social development of China in the first five years of the next century," he said.
He pointed out that one of the important prerequisites of pushing forward scientific and technological progress is to develop a sound mechanism that integrates scientific research, technological development, social production, market demand, investment and government support, and to foster a culture of respecting knowledge and talents and encourage innovation.
"We have to continue reforms, strengthen integral links between science and technology and production and promote scientific innovation and developments of knowledge," he said.
Speaking about the innovation of science and technology, Jiang noted that the history of mankind is a process of continuous innovation and progress. Without innovation, there will be no progress, and there will be no future for mankind either, Jiang said.
He pointed out that it is extremely important for China to make great efforts to push forward scientific and technological innovation and make great leaps in the development of technology.
"We must closely follow global trends, firmly push forward key research and development projects that have strategic, basic and crucial significance for the development of the economy, science and technology, national defense and Chinese society, and accelerate research on key subjects and make innovations by ourselves," he said.
"At the same time, we should actively strengthen exchange and cooperation with our international counterparts, and work hard to learn from the achievements of advanced science and technology," said Jiang.
Jiang is very concerned with the issue of scientific ethics. He said that science and technology have greatly improved the ability of human beings to control nature and themselves. However, more and more problems have also occurred when science and technology are applied in practice.
Industrial development, for example, has brought about polluted waters and an unclean atmosphere. Large-scale reclamation and excessive herding have also damaged the eco-system of forests and grassland. The development of information science and life sciences has raised issues concerning people's dignity, health, and inheritance, as well as ecological security and environmental protection.
The Internet can swiftly and broadly convey a wealth of useful information, but contains a lot of useless and false information as well. How to distinguish what is true and what is distorted information on the Net are also difficult for science and technology themselves to do, he said.
Jiang finally noted that mankind faces two big issues. The first is peace, the other is development. The solutions to these two issues are entwined with the development of science and technology.
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