Ideological Front | Warming the "Cold Bench" of Basic Research
The Fields Medal is the highest honor in global mathematics, hailed as the "Nobel Prize of mathematics." Not long ago, Chinese scholars Wang Hong and Deng Yu claimed this prize, achieving a historic breakthrough for our country in this award. Behind the dazzling glory lies years of quiet perseverance and silent toil. The two young scholars immersed themselves in difficult mathematical problems, conducting painstaking research and repeated deduction on the academic frontier, exchanging long and solitary dedication for achievements that have drawn worldwide attention. This inspiring historic breakthrough vividly confirms a simple yet profound truth: basic research, as the wellspring of the entire scientific system, cannot achieve major original innovation overnight — it requires prolonged effort and the gradual release of deep accumulation. On the new journey, accelerating scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement, and giving full play to the strategic supporting role of science and technology in our military's development, requires us to cultivate the fertile ground of basic research, actively guide the broad ranks of scientific researchers to embrace solitude and devote themselves to scholarship, continuously improve institutional safeguards, foster a rich atmosphere of innovation, and together warm the "cold bench" (冷板凳) of basic research.
At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is accelerating toward breakthroughs, global competition in science and technology is increasingly focused on basic frontier fields, and the importance of original and disruptive innovation is becoming ever more prominent. Looking across the history of human warfare, military scientific research is "an adventure of ideas" and "a contest on the silent battlefield," and breakthroughs in basic research are closely linked to the outcome of wars. Breakthroughs achieved in basic research often give rise to disruptive technologies, nurture new-quality combat capabilities (新质战斗力), and ultimately translate into decisive advantages on the battlefield. The period of the 15th Five-Year Plan is a critical period of concentrated effort in building a strong science and technology nation, and also a critical stage for high-quality advancement of national defense and military modernization. Chairman Xi has emphasized that we must seize opportunities and meet challenges, genuinely place basic research on an important agenda, sustain our efforts continuously, and keep producing new results. On the road ahead, we must squarely face the "coldness" of basic research, resolve the "difficulties" of basic research, and make determined efforts to warm the "cold bench" of basic research, so as to provide solid scientific and technological support for winning the initiative in future wars.
Warming the "cold bench" of basic research requires, above all, cultivating the scientific research resolve (科研定力) to focus single-mindedly on war-fighting and to sustain effort over the long term. Basic research is a solitary and arduous long-term endeavor that tests one's character to the utmost. Research and problem-solving cycles are lengthy and results accumulate slowly, placing exceptional demands on the perseverance and tenacity of scientific researchers; the path of innovative exploration is unknown and trial and error is a constant companion, making it all the more necessary for researchers to hold fast to their original aspirations and face setbacks without fear. Academician Ben De, 88 years old, is the founder of China's airborne pulse Doppler radar technology, a principal pioneer of phased-array radar technology, and a trailblazer in space-based surveillance radar technology. With wholehearted dedication to "choosing one thing and devoting one's entire life to it," he has safeguarded national development and security — a vivid embodiment of the deep commitment and steadfast conduct of scientific researchers. Confronting the "ten years to sharpen a sword" nature of basic research, the broad ranks of scientific researchers must both carry a sense of urgency that "there is no time to wait," a sense of mission that "one cannot sit still," and a sense of crisis that "one cannot afford to be slow" — keeping a close eye on the frontiers of military science and technology and closely attending to the real demands of preparing for and fighting wars, boldly venturing into the "no man's land" of basic research, and concentrating effort to achieve original breakthroughs "from 0 to 1" — and also cultivate the awareness to "be able to sit down," the quality to "sit steadily," and the rationality that "one cannot rush," firmly upholding the original aspiration and mission of serving the country through science and technology, not being trapped by worldly utilitarian judgments, not blindly following momentary industry trends, eliminating all distractions, concentrating all energy, and advancing day by day toward the frontier of the era and scaling the heights of science and technology.
Warming the "cold bench" of basic research also requires building an innovation ecosystem (创新生态) conducive to devoted scholarship and focused problem-solving. The perseverance of scientific researchers requires institutional nurturing; the deep cultivation of basic research requires an enabling environment. Competition in basic research is not only a contest of the abilities and qualities of talent itself, but even more a comprehensive contest of the soil in which talent grows and the institutional environment. Only by giving those who devote themselves to research a stage, prospects, and a future can we make them willing to sit, dare to sit, and sit steadily on the "cold bench" of basic research. On one hand, the reason basic research is "cold" is fundamentally rooted in its objective nature of exploring the unknown — a developmental bottleneck in the scientific research field that has long been urgently in need of resolution. This requires us to improve differentiated evaluation mechanisms, make great efforts to "break the four 'onlys'" (破四唯), establish a value orientation that emphasizes original work, long-term results, and real-world combat application, refrain from judging research value simply by short-term output, refrain from negating research value because results have not yet appeared, and reserve sufficient space for research that has long cycles, lacks consensus, and carries high risk; improve fault-tolerance and error-correction mechanisms, accommodate trial and error in scientific exploration, relieve scientific researchers of their ideological burdens, support them in freely exercising their innovative initiative, and enable them to charge continuously and without distraction at the most fundamental and most intractable problems; and scientifically optimize resource allocation, maintaining stable support for obscure disciplines and long-term research topics, and cultivating the soil of innovation through sustained investment. On the other hand, basic research is a long-distance relay race requiring successive generations of scientists to carry the effort forward. Young scientific and technological talent, as the group with the greatest innovative vitality, is the new force in basic research. We must give them responsibilities, build ladders for them, and provide them platforms, placing them at the front lines of scientific research to be tempered, supporting them to take on major responsibilities and play leading roles, continuously replenishing innovative vitality, and ensuring that the "cold bench" always has successors.
The historic breakthrough of the Fields Medal bears witness to the great strides made in China's basic research, and also allows us to see clearly the value of the era in deeply cultivating source innovation (源头创新). As long as we continuously cultivate the scientific research original aspiration of devoted scholarship, improve the institutional system that consolidates foundations and nurtures roots (固本培元), and enable more and more scientific researchers to be willing to take root in basic research, we will surely give rise to more original innovations and major breakthroughs, and genuinely lay a solid foundation for building a strong military through science and technology.
(Authors' affiliation: Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, National Defense University)