Engineering education and technology in a fast-developing China

As the world embarks on the 21st century, China–with a population of 1.3 billion–has arrived at a new stage of development: building a prosperous society and speeding up the national drive toward industrialization and modernization. Nearly 30 years after the adoption in 1979 of its reform and opening-up policy, China is experiencing historic leaps from poverty to subsidence, and thence to modest prosperity. The next goal for development is modernization by the middle of this century. This will be accomplished based on the following framework: within the first 20 years, China will build a moderately prosperous society with higher standards featuring a more developed economy, greater democracy, advanced science and education, more social harmony, and a more affluent life for the Chinese people. These major changes in this new stage of China’s economic and social development set the stage for this discussion of engineering technology and engineering education in China.