China's hi-tech thrust: Beijing's evolving approaches to the process of innovation

In an effort to narrow the technological gap between itself and the industrialized world, China is actively engaged in promoting the development of hightechnology industries. In March 1986, for example, China's State Science and Technology Commission launched the "863" program, which provides extra-budgetary funding for supporting high-tech innovation. What is conspicuous about recent Chinese efforts, however, is the willingness to allow many nontraditional centers of innovative activity to emerge, such as the Haidian district near Beijing University. The emergence of these alternative loci of technological dynamism suggest that the primary sources of innovation may be gradually, albeit steadily, shifting away from preexisting institutions and research units.