East Asia forges ahead as US science output plateaus

Changing Higher Education blog has an interesting review of the changing face of publication:

The NSF just released two interesting reports. Changing US Output of Scientific Articles:1988-2003 is a detailed analysis of publications in refereed journals over that time period. The companion publication, Changing Research and Publication Environment in American Research Universities, is based on interviews with scientists in 9 leading US research universities.

The first report extends and quantifies the well known result that the American share of international research publications has been dropping over time as other countries build their scientific and engineering capabilities. More importantly, it also shows the very surprising result that the absolute number of US scientific publications in peer reviewed journals has plateaued or dropped since the early 1990s. The second report seeks to understand that flattening of US research output.

In terms of the US share of scientific articles, the European Union (EU-15) passed the US in 1998 in total number of articles, and then flattened out in growth somewhat. What NSF calls the East Asia -4 ( China, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) has shown the most robust growth in number of articles over this period (16% per year), and equaled Japan in number of articles by 2003.

The NSF also looked at “highly influential” publications - those in the top 5% in number of citations, by field. Here the US continues to “outperform”: in all fields, more that 5% of the highly influential papers had US authors. However, in almost all fields, the percentage of highly influential papers with US authors has shrunk since the 1990s, indicating growth in quality as well as quantity of the scientific work being done outside of the US . Nevertheless, in 2003 roughly 50% of the highly influential papers show American authorship, with the EU-15 a distant second with about 30%.

Although the metrics indicating global coauthorship are rather course, there is clear indication of increasing international collaboration in all fields of science. In fact, the NSF concludes that the US held up as well as it did in the “highly influential” contest because it increased its participation in international collaboration.

Taiwan is desperately trying to raise the competitiveness of its universities, but its publication rates are too low. The top Taiwan university, National Taiwan University, isn't in the world's top 100 universities, whilst China has three or four universities in that ranking. The number 2 Taiwan university, National Chengkung University, is ranked 291. Many observers argue that Taiwan should offshore its manufacturing to China and move into R&D and services. But can Taiwan's university system deliver in that case? Can the island attract top talent from China and elsewhere? At Swenson's on Saturday, the speaker pointed out that Chinese R&D talent either stays in China or follows the brain drain out to the west, especially the US. Taiwan is entirely bypassed in this process. Top Chinese researchers are of course interested in Taiwan, but as a thing in itself, not as a place to do research.

To raise its competitiveness, publication output is only one aspect. Salaries would have to rise dramatically, and all the masters degree holders would have to go, unless they are major publishers of high quality work. Some degree of competition would have to be introduced into the system -- the controls on salaries, which is a subtle inducement for the best people to move into the National universities, would have to be lifted. More leeway would have to be granted in the construction of interesting classes and acceptance of names -- we have had entire meetings devoted to bringing names into exact alignment, since by ministry guidelines "Introduction to Poetry" and "Poetry 101" are two different classes. The system would have to become far more student oriented. The power and workload of the Chairmen would have to be reduced. The government has increased its investments in science funding and in exchanges. That would have to be sustained. Of course, it goes without saying that restrictions on hiring foreign faculty would have to be lifted, including substantive liberalization of visas.

A knowledgeable friend pointed out that the testing system, which controls which students go to what colleges, actually prevents system corruption. Chinese prefer "the best" out of a desire for status, not quality. If the restrictions on student choice were lifted, all the parents would want to get their kids into National Taiwan University and the few other top institutions, meaning that the intake system would become totally corrupted by under the table payments (there are rumors that this has already occurred in the top high schools -- want to get your son into the top school? A red envelope to the academic affairs department head is required). Yet without the introduction of widespread competition in the system, how can the universities here improve? There's quite a bit of anger leveled at the Ministry of Education's reform programs, but in many cases the problems it faces are highly complex, multifaceted, and nigh-on intractable. For example, consider the culture change necessary to get Taiwanese to accept education as an enhancement process, and not as a weeding out process....

UPDATE: Wow! No sooner do I write on this topic, then a news item appears that's relevant: a Nobel physicist who wants to work here has to get a work permit.

Unless negotiations produce a different policy, Nobel prize-winning physicist Daniel Chee Tsui (崔琦) will have to apply for a work permit if he decides to teach at National Taiwan University just like other white-collar foreign workers in this country.

Kuomintang (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓）called for negotiations between the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA), which demands work permits for all professors except those directly hired by national research institutions as consultants or researchers, and the Ministry of Education (MOE).

"No professor is going to want to be grouped with laborers," Chou argued. "The matter of securing entry for professors should be the province of the MOE, not the CLA."

Chou said he has appealed to the secretary-general of the Executive Yuan, Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻), to kick start talks between the two branches of government.

When asked for comment, Chen told reporters by telephone on Monday that he is still working on negotiations to allow Tsui and other professors to enter the country without first obtaining a work permit.

"We hope that the CLA can expand universities, especially elite universities, to the list of research institutions," said Ho Jow-fei (何卓飛), the head of the Ministry of Education's Department of Higher Education.

Ho said that some foreign professors have previously complained about the need to obtain a work permit.

Yup. Many sure have.

[Taiwan]

Beijing Controls the Maps

The Shanghaiist reports on illegal maps in China:

Among the many things one can do to make China "lose face" in the international eye:

1. Distribute toxic playthings to small children the world around
2. Kidnap and enslave hundreds of your countrymen and their children and force them to work in subhuman conditions
3. Crop the edges off a map

All three offensives have been committed in the last year, and all three were met with swift punishment. Granted, the map offenders have it a little easier than Zheng Xiaoyu (former director of the State Food and Drug Administration who will be executed for his role in the this year's tainted export debacle).

Six hotel chains have been found in violation of map standards regulated by the Shanghai's Mapping and Survey Management Office for failing to show the entirety of China -- in all its island-speckled, Taiwan-including glory -- on maps purporting to depict the nation. And by "purporting to depict the nation," we mean anything that is not clearly labeled to explain what it lacks. The Shanghai Daily gives on example:

What's interesting in these maps is what's not there. For example, China's claims to a whole Indian state, as well as the disputed areas that straddle the India-China frontier.

In fact, despite the 1996 agreement, several incidents of Chinese intrusions at Asaphi La and elsewhere in Arunachal Pradesh have been periodically reported in the press and discussed in the Indian Parliament. While no violent incident has taken place in the recent past, there have been occasions when Indian and Chinese patrols have met face-to-face in areas like the two "fish-tail" shaped protrusions in the north-east corner of Arunachal Pradesh. Such meetings have an element of tension and despite the best operating procedures, the possibility of an armed clash can never be ruled out.

In the western sector in Ladakh, the LAC is even more ambiguous as the lack of easily recognizable terrain features on the Aksai Chin makes it difficult to accurately co-relate ground and map. Both sides habitually send patrols up to the point where they assume the LAC runs. These patrols leave tell-tale signs behind in the form of burjis (piles of stones), biscuit and cigarette packets and other similar markers in a sort of primitive ritual to lay stake to territory and assert their claim.

In this light, the Chinese government's unwillingness to exchange maps showing the alignment of the LAC in western and eastern sectors, while at the same time talking of lofty guiding principles and parameters to resolve the territorial and boundary dispute, is neither understandable or condonable.

It can only be classified as another attempt to put off resolution of the dispute "for future generations to resolve", as Deng Xiao Ping had reportedly told Rajiv Gandhi in 1988.

The military gap between Indian and China is growing steadily. It would not be far-fetched to assume that China's strategy is to resolve the dispute when it is in a much stronger position in terms of comprehensive national strength so as to dictate terms at best, and maintain the status quo at worst.

China has settled some of its border disputes, but apparently they sometimes come unstuck:

The Qing emperor Kangxi (1662-1723) forced Korea, which at the time was a vassal state of China, to accept that the border separating the two countries should pass through the Paektusan peak. The region in which the volcano is situated is regarded as the cradle of the Manchu people. The squabble over Mount Paektu resurfaced under King Kojong (1864-1907), from the Korean Yi dynasty, but the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula put an end to any possibility of compromise.

The zone surrounding the volcano is inhospitable and uninhabited, and neither the Koreans nor the Chinese have tried to develop the region economically. The territory claimed by Pyongyang concerns 33 square kilometres around the Paektusan summit. In the case of Lake Chongji, the 1963 agreement established that three-fifths would be under North Korea’s control with the remaining two-fifths belonging to China.

In 1965, the standoff between China and the Soviet Union put North Korea in a very tight situation. Pyongyang needed the help of both countries: owing its existence to the former and its survival to the latter. Kim Il-Sung’s criticism of any deviation in the international communist movement was very badly received by Peking and tensions mounted between Kim and Mao. In order to punish the North Korean regime for its lack of support, China is thought to have demanded that the 160 square kilometres around Paektusan be conceded to it as compensation for the economic and military aid provided by Peking during the Korean War (1950-53)6. China abandoned its claim in November 1970 in order to improve relations with Pyongyang7. Between March 1968 and March 1969, various military skirmishes took place in the Paektusan region between the North Korean and Chinese armed forces. These were consequences of the tensions caused by the Cultural Revolution and the savage criticisms made of Kim Il-Sung by the Red Guards. During these years of unrest, Peking closed its border with its neighbour.

For the Koreans, Mount Paektu is entwined with their earliest history. According to legend, the God Hwanung (“the king come from the sky”) landed on the volcano to couple with a woman who then conceived a son, Tangun (“the king of the birch-tree”), who in 2333 B.C. founded the kingdom of Choson, regarded as being the first Korean state.

Furthermore, for the communist authorities of North Korea, Mount Paektu is the "sacred mountain of the revolution", the place of the most important guerrilla exploits in the 1930s under the command of Kim Il-Sung. After Mangyongdae, the village in which Kim was born, the volcano is without doubt the most venerated place in the DPRK. One of the best-known photographs of the former leader shows him at the summit of Paektusan contemplating Lake Chongji. This is proof of the North Korean desire to affirm its pre-eminence over this territory. An image of Mount Paektu also decorates the main fac,ade of the Korean Museum of the Revolution in Pyongyang, an enormous building that was constructed to the glory of the Great Leader’s revolutionary past.

The volcano's importance for the regime is such that North Korean propaganda affirms that Kim Jong-Il was born in a guerrilla camp on the Korean face of Mount Paektusan in February 1942. In actual fact, the present North Korean leader was born in the military camp of Vyatsk, near the city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far-East, where his father was an officer in the Red Army. The goal of this manipulation is clear: to situate the birth of the communist dictator on Korean soil and in a symbolic place that is representative of the consciousness of the Korean people8. The DPRK’s leaders even invented the exact spot of his birth that has since become a place of worship and pilgrimage.

To justify its control over a part of Paektusan, Peking talks about compensation for its military support of North Korea during the 1950-53 conflict. For some time now Peking has been constantly referring to its concern for the protection of the region’s natural environment and for the development of the volcano as a tourist attraction10. China has a final argument to justify its control over Paektusan, which is that while the volcano may be sacred for Koreans, it is also sacred for Manchus11. Hiding behind the defence of the interests of Manchus, Peking rules out any negotiations that could lead to territorial loss in the area.

One success of Chinese propaganda on the Taiwan issue is that Taiwan is usually viewed separately from these other disputes. Yet it is linked to them by the drive of the current leadership to re-occupy, to the extent possible, the old Qing dynasty borders. Taiwan should be placed in the context of this larger drive of China for territorial expansion. And of course, against the modern race for resources in the South China Sea. Consider the Natunas, a decade ago. From this 1996 article in the IHT:

China told Indonesia last year that it had no claim to the Natunas but failed to give such an assurance for the gas field, which is situated 225 kilometers northeast of the main island in the Natuna group. Official Chinese maps show the gas field falling well within a line marking China's maritime jurisdiction.

.

The Indonesian military spokesman said that the armed forces had "no intention of provoking other countries by holding the joint exercise" from Sept. 2 to 18. But analysts said that Jakarta was increasingly concerned about Beijing's intentions in the South China Sea.

Frequently China's grab of Taiwan is presented as the "final piece of the puzzle." The reality is that it is only one of the first steps.

[Taiwan] [China]

Outdoor Sunday

On Sunday morning I got up bright and early to meet David Reid downtown and head to Keelung to do some hiking with Keelung local history expert Jeff Miller. Here David grins as Jeff shoots.

Jeff drove us up onto the east flank of Yangmingshan for a hike to a waterfall. The path follows an irrigation network at the beginning, and is paved.

It was a good day for dragonflies.

There were plenty of people about, and we had a good time chatting with everyone we ran into.

The pavement soon ended and up we went through tall grass and then forest.

In addition to the dragonflies, other hunters prowled the stream.

This cute little bug rests on an important plant: indigo. During the 19th century Taiwan had a thriving trade in indigo, Jeff said, and the Chinese clothiers would send their raw cloth here to be dyed.

Davidson has an extensive section on Indigo in the 19th century in The Island of Formosa Past and Present, a book which should be in every library. By the late 19th century indigo was third in importance as an export after rice and coal, and first in value. However, it was produced in hill districts, where growers encountered problems with the aborigines, and later, it was supplanted by tea, necessitating imports from Swatow (now Shantou in China). Davidson said that domestic demand grew as Taiwan became wealthier as the century grew to close. It was never a plantation crop like it was elsewhere, in India, for example, but was grown as a side crop by farmers. The island also exported over 50,000 kilos of seed annually in his day (1890s). Davidson excoriates Taiwan for its lack of technological innovation, a problem that plagued many of the island's industries. Indigo in Taiwan was produced in the least valuable "mud cake" form by technology that was nowhere near as complex as that for producing sugar, but the Taiwanese never improved it. When the Japanese came in they converted indigo production to then-modern methods.

What is this fruit?

Jeff said that the trail was used from time to time by the water buffalo that are said to roam about Yangmingshan. However, I saw no water buffalo fewmets. The jury is still out in my book.

Jeff and David plot a path to the waterfall.

At the waterfall we found something really cool: a group of friends who had gotten together to explore the stream. They were rappelling up and down the waterfall, and were using safety equipment. Amazing. It was great to see so many people enjoying the great outdoors, a good harbinger for the future here.

The crisp water of the falls made for good swimming.

As Jeff and I look on, the group proceeds upstream.

Sensitive, soft-spoken, friendly, and relaxed. David.

Another group appears.

Washing lunch.

Waiting for lunch.

It jumped up to say hello. Probably wanted to be featured on my blog...

Jeff hunts creatures in the rocks.

Dragonflies face off.

Jeff checks for a shot.

More friends made on the trail. The great thing about Taiwanese is how quick they are to offer you food and drink and conversation.

Lots of families on outings.

The wings like broken leaves. Mimicry in nature never ceases to amaze.

After getting back to the car, we took off down Yangmingshan to the beach.

Here we are outside of Wanli, north of Keelung.

It's good to have a backyard, for storage.

The beach. In the distance can be seen some of those fiberglass UFO houses.

It's a good thing the beach was marked no swimming, no BBQing.....

In the tradition of sands and colossal wrecks stands this abandoned resort hotel, right on the beach. In the US such a place would be worth a fortune. Jeff said he'd been talking to a local historian who pointed out that Taiwan, alone among the Pacific islands, has a "mainland" culture -- its "islanders" are focused on the land, not the sea. Consequently the sea plays little if any role, including recreationally, in the lives of all these people who live so close to it.

On a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, with temps in the high 30s, the beach is empty compared to what it might be in Australia or the US.

Fun, fun, fun. Naturally the take-off point for these guys was right next to the place where everyone was swimming.

We piled back in Jeff's car and headed out to a point further north, not far from the famous rock formations of Yehliu -- which are inferior to those of Hoping Island. But nobody seems to know about Hoping Island, thankfully. Here a truck snarls traffic. Obviously Jesus had never seen Taiwanese truck drivers, or he would have never made his famous remark about camels and needles.

There are good views of the bay from the other side.

Plenty of interesting rock formations.

Ships on their way out.

The sandstone, with its elegant curves, looks more like series of studies for a nude than naked rock.

Jeff has had too much sun....

Jeff and David enjoy themselves.

In the distance are the formations at Yehliu.

Yehliu.

The government put a blockhouse above the road, carved into the sandstone of the hill.

After a long day of hiking and climbing.

People hard at work swimming beyond the no swimming sign. I guess it didn't specifically forbid snorkeling....

....Or scuba diving. This place looks like a great swimming hole, with plenty to explore. It's between the Howard Plaza Hotel and Yehliu, right on the road to Yehliu.

[Taiwan]