CHANGING CHINESE THINKING ABOUT TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

Abstract

The year 1978, when China made its decision to adopt on open policy to the outside world, marked a major change in the direction of the debate in that country on the subject of technology transfer. The works published on this subject since then can be roughly divided into two categories in terms of their character: at first, most of them aimed at popularizing the new open policy and emphasized the necessity for it, including the introduction of foreign technology, or discussed practical details such as what kind of technology should be selected for the time being and the way in which it should be introduced, but in 1982 works began to appear that dealt with the subject of technology transfer on the theoretical level from many different angles, those dealing with the future orientation of technology transfer surpassing the others in terms of both quantity and content. The present paper is a survey of the main such works for the purpose of considering recent changes in the Chinese discussion of the introduction of foreign technology, and determining what Chinese policy on this subject is likely to be during the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, which starts in 1986.