Can China Innovate?

Charlie Ang, founder of Everything40.com, Ambassador of SingularityU Singapore, Adjunct Advisor at IDC, and speaker at the 2018 APAC Conference, writes about China's ability to innovate in this article for Aljazeera.

Ang discusses the changing views of China's ability to innovate. Historically, China's perceived inability to innovate were attributed to:

• Rote-learning-based education system
• Top-down and centralized control
• Conformity culture

Today, China is the top source country of patent applications and grants. "To Copy China" (2CC) may soon replace the once popular "Copy to China" (C2C) in tech discussions. Ang explains that Chinese culture differs from Western regarding innovation in these ways:

• A long history of innovation and discovery
• Interdependence vs. Independence
• 'Middle Kingdom mentality'
• Chinese innovation is disruptive and systemic
• The diffusion of Chinese innovation is relational

Read the full article

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