China’s Innovation Path

Jan 05-2019   

The ‘0-1 innovation’ might be enjoying much of the hype and glamor, NSD Dean and Professor Yao Yang cautioned against its downsides such as high costs and disruptive destruction to industries. One case in point was the mid-west of the US, where nearly all jobs were effaced by innovations concentrated on western and eastern coasts, resulting in mind-boggling poverty level, he said in a speech at China Manufacturing Power Forum in late 2018. He proposed that China should choose a suitable innovation path on merits of its history, geography and culture. “We have places suitable for 0-1 innovations. The cities of Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Suzhou all boast the potential to become world innovation center, but most of the places should do ‘1-N’ innovation.” He pointed to the success story of Germany’s Industrialization 4.0 and that of some Chinese industrial firms. “Even if the whole world is undergoing the fourth industrial revolution, someone’s got to produce steel and ships. That’s our advantage and shouldn’t be forgone,” he said.