Since the early 1980s, China's science and technology system has been subject to a series of reforms and-reoganizations, new national R & D policies and programs have been introduced, major commitments have been made-to graduate education in the sciences, and extensive international ties have been established. The technical personnel emerging from these years represents the core human resource-pool for the critical challenges China faces at century's end. In terms of international salience, these include the-challenges of the global economy; managing-the severe environmental consequences of rapid economic growth; and providing for national security. This project seeks to provide a better understanding of the collective character of-the pool of Chinese technical personnel, its capabilities for meeting the needs of a rapidly changing China, its expected-role in the next century, and how these characteristics pertain to Western conceptions of a `scientific community.`--Work on the project begins with a systematic review of the many efforts to build modern institutions for science in-China during the 20th century, including those of the Mao era (1949-1976), and shifts to an examination of-the post-Mao reform policies as these have influenced professional life and the development of a sense of community. This work primarily will involve reviews of secondary literature in Chinese and English. After this initial work, the-project will begin to define and characterize the current population of Chinese technical personnel in terms of its-size, disciplinary composition, levels and modes of training, institutional environment, patterns of communication and-social stratification, and degrees of cosmopolitanism. This work will review governmental statistical sources-and analytical reports by Chinese policy analysts and STS researchers, and include interviews with Chinese scientists both in-China and the United States.--The final part of the study will examine the economic and political roles of the scientists. Reform-policies have introduced powerful commercial incentives into the Chinese research environment which some-observers see as distorting of scientific missions and disruptive to community building. Other reform policies have-enhanced the political standing of scientists and increased scientists' roles in policy making. Using both documentary-materials and interviews, the project will explore the changing nature of the linkages between science and economy,-and between science and state.--In spite of China's growing international importance, there have been no major studies in English of scientific-development in China for almost a decade. This study is therefore likely to attract considerable attention-from those seeking to understand the roles of science and technology in China's future and from those interested in-understanding the concept of `scientific community` in contemporary non-Western settings. China has a large pool-of technical talent, but misguided policies in the past prevented this talent from becoming a coherent and functioning-community. As a result, quality graduate education and scientific research were retarded, technological innovation-was frustrated, and major national development decisions were made - with debilitating economic and environmental-consequences - without sound technical judgments. The policies introduced since the late 1970s have been intended-to correct these errors and to allow for the building of a vibrant scientific community--The study proposed, in assessing where this process of community building now stands and what its future prospects-are, will be of interest to professional students of China, to STS professionals, and to policy communities which seek-to understand China's future course.-
