How China Forges its Own Path

While my own model and those of many leading experts support the argument that innovation flourishes best through a stable government that champions freedom of expression, free markets, and the protection of intellectual property rights, China has forged a somewhat different path.?

It is indeed difficult for Westerners to understand how China’s meteoric economic rise and mounting achievements in science and technology can be reconciled with the heavy hand of an authoritarian state.?

Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman was invited to China in 1988 to give his advice on how the Asian giant could reform its economy.?

To get rich, he said, China must be free. So, freedom, by this claim, is a precursor for innovation that translates into economic success.?

Or is it? China has remained resolute in its decision to keep the Communist party firmly in charge as it reforms its economy and opens to global commerce at its own pace. An exploration of the top-down, bottom-up and other forces that promoted—or impeded innovation in China’s past may provide insight into its modern-day quest to reclaim its former glory as the world’s innovation leader.?

What are the roots of this modern-day tension between an authoritarian government and a free market economy that is encouraging a new form of “state capitalism”? And how does China’s extraordinary track record of invention, particularly during its earlier imperial age, fit with our model of innovation?

Watch out for my next posts about China and innovation.?