The world’s most innovative country
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In 2007 I made my first trip to China to report on its vast technological ambitions. It was a daunting task. Even some of the country’s older innovations defeated me. In Shanghai, I made the classic mistake of biting too greedily into a soup dumpling, squirting warm juice across the table.
A year earlier China’s government had unveiled a 15-year plan to make the country an “innovation-oriented society” by 2020. In many ways it has succeeded. China now ranks 11th on the Global Innovation Index, an amalgam of 78 indicators published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, far higher than you would expect for a middle-income economy. You can see where your own country stands here. The two most innovative countries may surprise you.
China has hit some bumps along the way. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba whom I interviewed in 2007, lost favour with China’s leaders; WuXi AppTec, a pharmaceutical firm I visited on the same trip, has been accused of mishandling American intellectual property; and Suntech, a renewable-energy firm I also visited, was ruined in 2013 by a glut of solar panels. At least Shanghai’s dumplings are as enticing as ever.
Simon Cox, China economics editor
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