China used to pioneer the world in military science and technology for a historical span of over 2,000 years stretching from the Spring and Autumn Period to early Ming Dynasty. However, in the wake of the 16th century, China was progressively out-developed by the West and her military might was equally eclipsed ever since. It will be a profound enlightenment for us even today to earnestly analyze the reasons from the aspect of military science and technology.

China's enclosed environment in modern times served to suffocate the innovative thinking of the Chinese people.
The main environmental elements causing the withering of the Chinese people's innovative thinking mainly refer to the backward social system and the policy of cutting off China from the outside world and all. To begin with, the backward social system hung on by China in modern times stifled the innovative thinking of the Chinese. Secondly, the policy of shutting the door on the world handicapped the growth of innovative thinking.

The gradual inactivation of innovative thinking in China deprived the military its mainstay of innovation.
The main driving force of military innovation rests with human being. Once people lost interest in innovation, military innovation would become a lip service. In the history of China, there was a strong tendency of putting method above instrument, which was reflected in military as attaching importance to strategy while belittling technology, resulting in a high level of stratagem theory in ancient China but a downhill development of science and technology. By striking contrast, military science and technology in the West witnessed a sizzling development since the 16th century outstripping China in no time. Obviously, the dawn of this situation was closely related to the different options of value picked by China and the Western countries.

The disadvantages of the Chinese traditional thinking handicapped military innovation.
The traditional thinking of China features strong philosophical theory and high fuzziness, and good at overall thinking but weak at precise analysis with more reasoning and less logic grounds. The traditional thinking of China contains rich and unique dialectical thinking with wide reference application and long-standing inspiration. However, these features also lead to its fuzziness and poor dividing lines. This undoubtedly would impact the development of military science and technology.

Hell, you don't need to develop technology - either steal it from the wide-open USA, or buy it from the Russians.

By Yu Rubo
(Feb.15, PLA Daily)