manqiangrexue
Brigadier
And arguing with him on culture/communism stunting innovation is stupid as well. Look at all the democratic nations, especially India, that lag so far behind China in technology and patent filing. The US poaches its scientists from foreign countries baiting them with their own greed so real American beer-guzzling communications majoring frat boys can claim that USA invented all these techs.
The reason why this antiquated notion that Chinese do not innovate exists is so very simple. Decades ago, China was in a state where it couldn't build a calculator, looking at peers who could build supercomputers. At this stage, it's just stupid to "invent" things because your knowledge base is too small. First you must learn from the world to catch up before you out-invent them. At this point, Westerners rejoiced at this observation that the Chinese do not innovate; they only copy. They were happy to conclude that this was an inherent flaw with Communism, but in actuality, it is true for all nations starting at a low technological point. So for China, at that point, could not innovate, in the same sense that a first grader does not invent tech; he learns what is taught in school to build his knowledge base and it would be very stupid to conclude that it is because he is inherently incapable. As Chinese tech matured and drew to even footing with its peers (some areas faster than others), it is the equivalent of this boy graduating his PhD. At this inflection point, he is ready to innovate on his own and even surpass his instructors as we see in many areas today. In some other areas, China may still be working on its degree. But everywhere, Chinese tech is rising and the trends point to ubiquitous catching up to its peers through obtaining tech, and then overtaking those peers through Chinese innovation.
