Seems like every time I see a paper more than half the names on it are Chinese.

Is there any metric to quantify this as a fact or is it just one of these things US people keep telling themself?

In my lifetime I never got the impression that any area was particularly the scientific leader.

How many technological innovations do you remember from the past 20 years and from which areas did they come from?

Surely a few come to mind. Well distributed around the globe, kinda focused around my living area obviously as this is what I hear most.

How do you see that? Do you see an obvious tech leader in all fields somehow?

China is going to need to get a lot better about immigration and fraud for that to really happen.

it doesn't seem like they're having any issue with it in the past 5-10 really. its not that hard to go to the mainland if you have science or engineering creds these days.

Was wondering, how feasible is it to immigrate for a humble 老外?

It's very easy to be a 洋鬼子.

ok

There are a lot of inflationary ways China grows their numbers. From sketchy journals owned by the government to made up stuff.

Satellites and telescopes can be easily verified.

Except historically, China didn't propagate technology. It was used at the discretion of the emperor and held as a secret. They had moveable type before Gutenberg, but had a culture, government, and language that were all factors against its propagation. They had a navy second to none, but found the rest of the world not interesting (Confucian Conservatism is one theory) and dismantled it, nearly a century before Magellan's voyages. If anything, their knowledge leaked to the rest of the world as opposed to them leading it.

Today, China is playing Go with the world as their board. We have to start counting liberties on our groups; the late game is now.

  > If anything, their knowledge leaked to the rest of the world as opposed to them leading it.

gunpowder being a huge one...