■Science and Technology

In the early post-liberation years, Jilin had only five research institutes, including the Changchun Applied Chemistry Research Institute, the Changchun Bio-product research institute and the Jilin Academy of Agronomy, which were taken over from the old regime during the War of Liberation. Later, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other state departments have established some new research institutions in Jilin, including the Changchun Optical Precision Machinery Institute and the Chanchun Automobile Research Institute. Some world-famous scientists, such as Wu Xuezhou and Tang Ao’qing, were dispatched to Jilin. In the same year, the Jilin branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established, and so was the Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Working Commission (which was later renamed Jilin Provincial Science and Technology Commission). After the convocation of the National Science and Technology Conference in 1978, Jilin’s science and technology entered a new stage of development. Social science also made much headway that year, with the establishment of the Jilin Provincial Academy of Social Sciences. In 1983, Jilin Economic and Technological Research Centre and the Jilin Social Science Federation(SSF) were established. (SSF merged into Jilin provincial Academy of Social Sciences in 2001).

Till to 2006, in Jilin province there has been 41 academicians from CAS, CAE and the Third World Academy of Science, Russia Academy of Science. A total of 493 scientific research results were achieved. 4196 technology transfer contracts were signed, up 8.2%, involving a transaction value of 1.54 billion Yuan, up 25.7%.4578 patent applications were received from home and abroad, while 2319 patent applications were authorized, up 11.6% and 14.6% respectively.

The province is now in the possession of 17 research institutions affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and relevant state ministries and commissions; these include the Changchun Precision Optical Machinery and Physics Research Institute, the Changchun Applied Chemistry Research Institute, the Northeast Geology and Agro-Ecology Research institute and the Changchun Bio-product Research institute. There are also 119 independent research institutes at and above the county level, 190 research and development centers run by colleges, and 123 research and development organizations in large and medium-sized industrial enterprises. The province is also the venue of ten key national laboratories, 35 provincial key labs and experimental centers, and 12 regular technology markets.

Jilin Province is rather competitive in such technological fields as optics, applied chemistry, solid-state physics, electronic information technology, bio-engineering technology, new materials, advanced manufacturing technology, modern agriculture, modern Chinese medicine, ecological environmental protection, and environment-friendly automobile research. Jilin is in the front ranks in some of these fields. By relying on its abundant scientific and technological resources, the province has cultivated a cluster of key industries and enterprises and new sources of economic growth. The photoconduction industrial garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences came under construction in Changchun in June 2000; covering an area of 2.12 square km in the Changchun Economic and Technological Development zone and calling for a total investment of 18 billion Yuan. Once completed, the garden will net an annual income of 30 billion Yuan. In 2000, the Ministry of Science and Technology approved Jilin Province as China’s second modern scientific and technological industrial base for traditional Chinese medicine, where five research offices are already engaged in the cultivation of traditional medicinal herbs, Chinese medicinal chemistry, Chinese pharmacology, combination chemistry, and Chinese medicine quality inspection. They have started 13 centers for the planting of pollution-free medicinal herbs; ginseng included, and designated Jilin Aodong, Changchun Huakang, Tonghua Dongbao and eight other enterprises as pacesetters for the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.