IS CHINA A GLOBAL INNOVATION POWERHOUSE?
This debate prompt has been taken nearly directly from a public debate which The Economist felt important enough to host through its website and which is important for us to discuss as a class. China's spectacular economic rise is producing some of the world's biggest and fastest-growing companies. Does this also mean that China is an innovation power on par with America? On the one hand, boosters point to the soaring number of patents held by Chinese technology firms like Huawei and Lenovo, the number of Chinese PhDs in technical fields graduating each year and the success of internet firms like Alibaba and Tencent as evidence that China is leapfrogging to the forefront of global innovation. On the other hand, skeptics highlight the lack of rule of law and respect for intellectual property rights inside the country, widespread corporate espionage and cybertheft, and forced technology transfers as evidence that China remains a copycat and a cheat.
This question becomes particularly important as the country's export-led growth model based on cheap labor runs out of steam. Now China's leaders openly talk about the need to shift from exports to domestic consumption, and of the need to boost services. They are explicitly targeting innovation as a national priority, in the hope of speeding the shift from brawn to brain that is required to prosper in this new century's ideas economy. So is China a world-class innovator or not? What do you think?
Bring your 500 word (minimum) typed responses with you to class on Monday (10/13) where we will read and share our responses with the rest of your colleagues. This is an important topic of discussion in business, policy, and economic circles. This question and some of the resources listed below are taken directly from a discussion and policy summit the Economist magazine held last year. Although we will not be submitting our responses to them at this time it is still a vital question which we must answer.
Support Materials
This question becomes particularly important as the country's export-led growth model based on cheap labor runs out of steam. Now China's leaders openly talk about the need to shift from exports to domestic consumption, and of the need to boost services. They are explicitly targeting innovation as a national priority, in the hope of speeding the shift from brawn to brain that is required to prosper in this new century's ideas economy. So is China a world-class innovator or not? What do you think?
Bring your 500 word (minimum) typed responses with you to class on Monday (10/13) where we will read and share our responses with the rest of your colleagues. This is an important topic of discussion in business, policy, and economic circles. This question and some of the resources listed below are taken directly from a discussion and policy summit the Economist magazine held last year. Although we will not be submitting our responses to them at this time it is still a vital question which we must answer.
Support Materials
- NPR PlanetMoney: Is China’s Economy Genius or Bound for Disaster?
- New York Times: Movers and Shakers of China’s Economy
- Economist: From Brawn to Brain
- Economist Debates: Edward Tse and Anne Stevenson-Yang present their two opposing opinions:
- Discussion 1: http://www.economist.com/debate/overview/264
- Discussion 2: http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/1037