Carsten Ullrich's List: China

China's efforts to become a technology power began with a government initiative known as the 863 program. Launched under Deng Xiaoping in 1986, the program paid for $1.3 billion worth of research and development throughout the country. Its goal was to narrow the gap between China and the West in a dozen sectors, including space tracking, nuclear energy and information technology.

In the beginning, the program boasted of its transparency, issuing annual reports detailing where the money went and its major achievements. But in 2002, the government abruptly stopped issuing updates, and today it won't even reveal how much money it is giving out.