The most critical question for Western economies vis-à-vis China’s economic and technological challenge is whether and when China can become a real innovator. If China cannot meaningfully innovate, then it poses less of a threat to U.S. and other Western advanced industries. However, suppose China developed new-to-the-world innovations ahead of or around the same time as Western nations. In that case, its potential to take market share from and even kill Western tech companies becomes much more likely.
So, how innovative is China? Writing in The National Interest, Rob Atkinson summarizes the findings of ITIF’s 20-month study of Chinese company innovation. Overall, it found that, for the most part, Chinese firms and industries lag global leaders. However, they are catching up, in many cases, at an astoundingly rapid pace, and the scale of their efforts, backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is astounding.
Read the op-ed.
