The World’s Innovation Fire-Breathing Dragon
Perhaps the most critical question for the United States vis-à-vis the economic and technology challenge it faces from China is whether China can become a real innovator. As Rob Atkinson writes in The International Economy, if China remains largely a copier of others’ innovations, and if the United States can maintain or increase its rate of innovation, the United States has a better chance of maintaining its lead over China. But if China can develop new-to-the-world innovations faster or even at the nearly the same rate as the United States and other allied nations, then it is much more likely that China will be able to take significant market share from OECD nations’ technology companies. As things now stand, China is on course to achieve that ambition across a range of advanced technology industries, especially as Chinese firms benefit from a large protected domestic market and a vastly more supportive government.
