Designed in China

Since 30 years after Deng’s reform, China has not been innovative compared to the US. There are only several recognized Chinese brands in the world market. However, we have been seeing changes in front of our eyes.

Why Chinese have not been innovative

·         As of 2018, China is moving up from a developing country to a developed country. It is not there yet, but it is getting closer. In many sectors China has been in the leading edge and with a huge home market, China is the number one in most sectors in manufacturing.

·         Protection of intelligence properties is still in the infancy.

·         During Mao’s communism era, Chinese did not think outside the box.

·         Chinese education system encourages students to be good testers by remembering formula, data, facts and how to take exams.

Why it is changing

·         As product value is climbing, it requires innovation for better profit margins. Most large corporations have committed research. With a large local and foreign markets, the research will be paid off and some already did.

·         With a lot of innovative products, China has to protect her own intelligence properties.

·         Many do think outside the box. Chinese have seen the successes and hence the wealth for innovative products.

·         We have not seen the geniuses like Gates and Zuckerberg yet in China. However, China does have schools for geniuses in most Tier I cities. Even the traditional schools encourage innovation.

For my personal experiences, many of my classmates become innovators after the “tester” education in high schools. The owner of DJI, the largest company in consumer drones, graduated from college and got a small grant from his college to start the company. It is a successful model to follow.

·         Chinese students work harder than American counterpart. If you believe the students working 3 hours less (my estimate) every day will achieve the same, you believe in fairy tales.

·         The government encourages education while our leaders cut research and school budgets. I know three Ph.D. in space engineering: one retired and two are still looking for jobs. All those talks on improving science education are just garbage.

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The above is from my book "Can China Say No?". Click here for more info in Amazon.com.