CHINA’S continued economic progress depends on mastering the art of mould-breaking innovation. President Hu Jintao intones that the “capacity for independent innovation” is the “core of our national development strategy”. Sceptics agree with his premise, but scoff that innovation and autocracy do not mix. So long as China remains a dictatorship, it will be trapped in a world of mass production and routine assembly, they say. One scholar, Cong Cao, argues that the country faces a future of “premature senility”.
China has invested heavily in homegrown innovation. The government has not only persuaded Microsoft and Google to establish research centres in China. It has also set up science parks across the country, in the hope of creating a Chinese Silicon Valley. Beijing’s Zhongguancun Science Park alone is home to thousands of high-tech enterprises. Chinese universities are joining the charge. Peking University, for example, has established “innovation and entrepreneurship” programmes.
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