What I get from that book is they have a culture of a free for all that anything can be copied and ripped off so there is no standing still to admire your work.
Innovate or get copied and innovated out of existence.
A stark contrast to what we have evolved in the US. Innovate and then use the profits of innovation to buy legislation that eliminates competition.
There is no mystery how this plays out over a 50 year time window.
True Innovation comes from the heart, and most mainland Chinese have lost touch of their hearts - you can even see that foreshadowed in ài the character for Love (爱/愛)。The simplified version just pretended the heart 心 is not in the center of it..
You may have step-by-step progress in China, like going from 110 to 111.
But there have never been and will never be any 0 to 1 kind of innovation in China.. maybe at most gimmicks and copying orchestrated by the Beijing State itself.
This sort of stands in contrast to reality, where the US has sustained insane and constant innovation for a vast stretch of time.
It's almost a free for all without too much worries about regulation whether cars, nuclear, viral gain of function, high speed trains etc.