指一个国家的年轻劳动人口占总人口比重较大，抚养率比较低，为经济发展创造了有利条件。）
10. The country is determined to win this race if only to ensure it can complete the goal of transforming its economy. (Par. 9) — 中国下决心要赢得这场比赛，即使只是为了实现其经济转型的目标。
11. research proposal (Par. 11) — a document written by a researcher that provides a detailed description of the proposed program. It is like an outline of the entire research process that gives a reader a summary of the information discussed in a project.（研究计划）
12. research grants (Par. 11) — 研究经费
Part Three
Reference Answers to Questions
1. China has a severe shortage of skilled talents. The situation will likely get worse as China’s high-tech industries grow and it increases its national R&D spending. 2. The “Thousand Foreign Talents Program” is launched by the Chinese government to bring 2,000 experienced engineers, scientists, and other experts of Chinese origin back from the West.
3. China has recruited more than 1,500 high quality talents, and 300 returnees has been enrolled in management training courses. These individuals, while re-learning how to operate successfully within the Chinese system, are expected to serve as a critical catalyst in transforming China's innovation environment in ways that will enhance the country's competitive edge across a range of key, strategic industries.
4. The Chinese government announced that it would allow foreign nationals to take senior roles in science and technology sectors and state-owned enterprises. They will also pay foreigners salaries equal to what they can earn at top paying jobs in America. And the government announced that it intended to offer permanent resident-type visas to foreign entrepreneurs.
5. Some of the returnees have found themselves victims of discrimination and petty jealousy from those who stayed behind. Moreover, they have struggled to re-adapt to China's relationship-oriented culture, which stands in sharp contrast to the performance-oriented culture of the West. For instance, returnees are frequently confounded by the \ways research proposals are evaluated and research grants are distributed.
6. Because they are faced with the challenges or returning. For example, they would prefer their children to complete their education abroad and not have to suffer through China's \
Words to Know
catalyst, commitment, competitive edge, conducive, cultivate, enroll,
entrepreneurship, expatriates, fraud, innovation economy, lay off, high-priority, national priority, plagiarism, rank, recruit, R&D, GDP, re-adapt, re-learning, returnee, state-owned enterprises, state-run companies, strategic entrepreneurs, strategic industries, talent, talent pool, underestimate, upgrade, workforce
Part IV
Supplementary Reading
China approaching the turning point
By A.C.S.
CHEAP Chinese labour makes the world go around. It supplies developed markets with cheap goods which, to some extent, make up for stagnating wages. It also keeps the Chinese economic model humming by providing the foundation for growth. But how long can it last? IMF economists Mitali Das and Papa N’Diaye, in a new working paper, reckon only about another decade.
When an economy first becomes industrialised it grows very fast by importing foreign technology and employing capital and plentiful, cheap, unskilled labour from the farm. But after a while the extra agricultural labour is put to work and wages start to rise. This makes firms less profitable and they have to come up with their own technology to keep growing. This shift is known as the Lewis Turning Point, named after Nobel-Prize winner Sir Arthur Lewis. According to the IMF economists China is not there, yet. But the glut of labour peaked in 2010 and, as the population ages, it’s all down-hill from here. They estimated that if things stay as they are, China will reach the Lewis Turning Point between 2020 and 2025.
Of course things might change. If China relaxed its one child policy and everyone there suddenly had lots of babies (they assume a very high fertility rate) the
Lewis Turning point might be delayed by a few years (though not much because it takes time for babies to grow into workers and have more babies). Alternatively if there’s financial sector reform, interest rates will rise. In that case Chinese worker/savers will feel richer and may not want to work as much; this would speed up the turning point.
This story is reminiscent of “the Asian economic miracle”, the once impressive growth of Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. Paul Krugman claimed their growth was not such a miracle. It was merely the mobilisation of resources: taking foreign technology and using cheap labour and capital. Eventually you run out of cheap labour, reach a point of diminishing returns to adding more capital, and growth slows. Though living standards are much higher than they were before, these countries no longer grow as fast.
Perhaps China will experience a similar fate. When that happens the world may look different. Consumer goods will cost more, though some low-skill jobs may come back to the west. China can't sustain its current rate of growth; the question is whether growth will slow before incomes have attained rich-world levels or while many have yet to benefit from the fruits of development. The Chinese model seems to rely on continuous improvement in living standards; the fear is if that stops there could be social unrest. Chinese growth has often confounded observers. If China becomes a leader in innovation growth might continue. It will take such a leap to overcome demographic headwinds. (From The Economist, January 31, 2013)