China has invested billions in improving its scientific standing. Almost every Chinese ministry has some sort of program to win a technological edge in everything from missiles to medicine. Beijing's minister of science and technology, Wan Gang, will visit the United States in early July and is expected to showcase some of China's successes.

In May, for example, a supercomputer produced in China was ranked the world's second-fastest machine at an international conference in Germany. China is now in fourth place, tied with Germany, in terms of the number of supercomputers. China has jumped to second place -- up from 14th in 1995 -- behind the United States in the number of research articles published in scientific and technical journals worldwide.

Backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Chinese medical researchers, partnering with a firm in the United States, beat out an Indian team last year to develop a new test for cervical cancer that costs less than $5. The goal is to test 10 million Chinese women within three years.

Chinese engineers have significantly improved on Western and Soviet coal-gasification technology as part of a multibillion-dollar effort to create green Chinese energy.

Action, not research

"The action is here," said S. Ming Sung, the chief Asia-Pacific representative for the Clean Air Task Force, a U.S.-based nonprofit entity, and a former Shell Oil executive. "In the U.S., there are too many paper researchers. Here, they are doing things."

David Fuller's view China's expansion and development in all areas is of whirlwind proportions. It is both impressive and a little scary, although not nearly so scary as the Maoists were, in my view.

China's Shanghai A-Shares Index (weekly & daily) slumped to a new reaction low today. Consequently a downside failure signalled by a break back above 2720 is the minimum required to reverse scope for a further test of underlying trading. A downward revision in leading indicators was cited by Bloomberg as the reason. I maintain that the big factor weighing on China's stock market over the last year is supply in the form of IPOs. This article from Associated Press details the latest large IPO.