Australia's Chief Scientist Follows Up His July 31 Position Paper on Directing STEM with a Speech on Interaction with China. (August 15, 2013)

 Yesterday evening in a speech delivered at the university which he served as vice-chancellor prior to taking up the nation's Chief Scientistship, Professor Ian Chubb warned: "We need to work out how to build from the base that has been constructed by all these people [pursuing collaborative research] over all these years... Our relationship with China will enter a new and different phase."

Professor Chubb is of the opinion that by 2020 China's output of scientific publications will have surpassed that of the United States but just what that would entail was not elaborated.

What is somewhat disquieting is the suggestion in Professor Chubb's remarks of a tendency to micromanage the nation's research. For example research should be aligned with comparative advantage and national need -- "The development of China and the role of science, technology and innovation is not being left to chance. Australia could also choose to be strategic."