[Salon] US losing ground to China with ‘onslaught’ on cutting-edge research: Nobel laureate

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

US losing ground to China with ‘onslaught’ on cutting-edge research: Nobel laureate

America risks losing the tech race to China unless it elects a government more supportive of scientific research, Nobel-winning economist says

SCMP

Kandy Wong

Published: 9:00pm, 21 Jan 2026

The United States could be at risk of falling behind China in the technology race unless it halts the “wholesale onslaught” on scientific research programmes taking place under US President Donald Trump, according to the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joel Mokyr.

The American-Israeli scholar, who shared the 2025 prize for economics, said “all areas that are at the cutting edge of science” in the US were “suffering” under the current administration, which appeared to be “against any kind of innovation”.

“I think they’re trying to clean house as far as the research and academic institutions are concerned,” Mokyr said during an event at the University of Hong Kong on Wednesday. “But it’s way too radical, way too dramatic.”

Washington suspended or cancelled more than 7,800 research grants last year, Nature reported on Tuesday. The US State Department also proposed suspending 38 universities – including Harvard and Yale – from a federal research partnership programme due to their use of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices.

Mokyr said it was “hard to say” how long Washington would persist with its “mindless attitude” towards science, but suggested that people should look to “other populist regimes” such as Turkey, Hungary and Russia to understand the “deeper reasons” behind recent events.

So far, China has avoided “falling into this trap”, Mokyr noted, which could give Beijing an advantage as it seeks to leapfrog the US in a series of strategic emerging industries.

“If the US can’t elect a government that is more amenable to cutting-edge science, then they deserve to lose to China,” he said. “And I will be standing on the sidelines cheering for China.”

Chen Zhiwu, chair professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong, said during the same panel discussion that the world had entered into an era in which “warfare-driven rules” were becoming the dominant driver of economic development.

“Interstate competition is very severe,” Chen said. “Battlefield applications of technology are by far the most important drivers of human development, including not just technological innovation, but also social complexity.”

Chinese scientists have been leaving the US for China in ever greater numbers in recent years, with recent funding disruptions and growing political scrutiny of ethnically Chinese researchers adding to the exodus.

China’s universities have also been gaining ground on their American counterparts in global academic league tables, as Beijing provides generous research funding and other perks to attract elite talent.

While the US remains a global leader in a slew of industries – including semiconductors, artificial intelligence frameworks, cloud infrastructure and quantum computing – China is “quickly closing the gap” in areas such as robotics and embodied AI, said Mark Kennedy, director of New York University’s Development Research Initiative, in an interview with Goldman Sachs Research published in December.

Kandy Wong

Kandy Wong returned to the Post in 2022 as a correspondent for the Political Economy desk, having earlier worked as a reporter on the Business desk. She focuses on China's trade relationships with the United States, the European Union and Australia, as well as the Belt &