I don't think we can underestimate the Chinese power to innovate either - consider Shanzhai[1]. What comparable practice do western cultures have?

Sharing and mashing up IP without restriction and less regulation could be a serious challenge to competition in the traditional sense.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanzhai

Imo Shenzen has shown some real supply chain innovation but... seriously you're bringing up counterfeit goods offloading IP development costs onto competitors as an example of innovation from China?

You have to look deeper into the phenomenon. I'm not talking about the illegal practices and poor quality, I'm talking about the fact that these practices often lead to lower cost and accidental innovations due to disregarding IP laws.

I think it's fascinating how certain types of products have been targeted for counterfeiting and how far they have spread. When you look at the ever downward pressure on price (and often, inadvertently quality) demanded by customers, I think it might lead to the conditions supporting these practices.

It's definitely a think outside of the box type of exercise, but, look at open source and compare for a minute. Of course there is a huge differences, but I think the things the comparison highlights are of interest to question.

For the record, my comments weren't mean to be disparaging in any way of the multitude of Chinese innovations. Clearly the Chinese power to innovate has existed for probably longer than many countries and many critical inventions and ideas arose there. For example, gunpowder, paper, compasses, etc.

The IP has to exist before you can "mash it up"

China doesn't need either innovation or to catch up technologically. They have 5x the population of USA. They can be lagging far behind and still have a larger economy.

in the digital and mobile software space and how they can transform society, i am seeing China a year and a half ahead of US and Japan (and quite a bit ahead of Europe). Same in infrastructure where it's decade ahead of the US. No one I know in the cities in China actually carries cash any more. Often I the foreigner am the only one carrying cash. Living without WeChat is pretty much impossible to the extent i have it on my phone explicitly to talk to my Chinese colleagues. If you have a reasonable Alibaba credit score, you don't need any financial paperwork to get visas etc.

Oh they also have a much more advanced surveillance state, complete with a social behavior score system.

Look to a company like DGI, founded and based in China. They seem to be blazing a trail in a tricky technical market: consumer and industrial drones, and manage to be the world market leader.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJI_(company)