Scientific research is part of the wealth of countries and contributes to their geopolitical status. At the 2016 China Association for Science and Technology Congress, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised that the People’s Republic of China would become one of the most innovative countries in the world by 2020 and in the 100th year of its founding in 2049, a global scientific power. In 2019 China was the top country in number of international patent applications, with over 58,000 applications and 3.6 million nationally. Recently China has overtaken the US in number of research papers although their scientific impact is still relatively modest. The Atlantic bloc cannot fail to fear China’s increasingly assertive science policy, due to a series of factors: operational alliance with Russia and Iran; increase of collaborations and attendance of Chinese scientists and students in European universities; funding and studies conducted by European universities together with state and military institutions in sectors such as defense, computer sciences, artificial intelligence, optical, communications and aerospace sciences. What role does Europe intend to play in this framework? The struggle to compete globally is weakened by economic problems and a fragmented market, yet the goal of making the continent a “digital champion” presupposes basic strategic choices that cannot be held back.
