[nopinsight]

I believe you underestimate the Chinese. The biggest advantage the US, Europe, and Japan have is the long lead time to develop and refine existing technologies. However, the landscape of advanced technologies is changing more rapidly than ever.

For example, the Chinese lags in traditional car manufacturing techniques because they only have a few decades to accumulate experience on that front, but they are spearheading mass manufacturing electric vehicles at scale with efficiency rivalling anyone in the world.

DJI is the leading drone company globally. Chinese carmakers manufactured 47% of all plug-in EVs sold worldwide in 2017. [1] (Yes, with solid government support, but they are part of the system we're considering.)

They developed the first (and only, so far) AI to pass a medical licensing exam human doctors need to take. (If you thought it's just rote learning, it's not. Analysis is required.) [2]

Regarding creativity, please see the replies to this comment by people with first-hand experience in China. [3]

Blocking tech transfer will prompt China to intensify their efforts to develop their own technologies. With their scale, ambition, and work culture, it's not clear at all that technologies they develop in new fields, where no one has a head start, will be inferior to those created elsewhere in the world. The evidence so far largely refutes this hypothesis.

[1] https://cleantechnica.com/2018/01/29/2017-china-electric-car...

[2] http://sites.ieee.org/futuredirections/2017/12/02/congrats-x...

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16612175

[foodislove]

Your last paragraph "blocking tech will prompt China to intensify their efforts to develop their own technologies" is exactly my point. It's much easier and less time consuming to have someone give it to you than to develop it from scratch :)

I can tell you are Chinese and extremely proud of her achievements. Saying as a whole, the education system in China produces less on creativity should not be viewed as an insult to national honor. There's nothing wrong with admitting that things are not the best. Otherwise, how can you improve?

[nopinsight]

I have never lived nor been educated in China. :) I do take interest in global affairs and enjoy developing big picture analysis esp about the future.

I feel like I can agree that the education system, based on observation from afar, could possibly be weak on "creativity" as traditionally defined.

However, if you look at their Gaokao math questions, it requires much more creativity to solve than SAT Quantitative. For example, https://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-examples-of-hard-Chinese...

Creativity has broad meanings, and each culture may value and support its expression in different terms.

[foodislove]

Agreed

The Gaokao reference you make is interesting. One of the biggest complains about standardized testing in the States is that it pushes teachers to "teach to the test". The Gaokao takes that to the extreme. It's much harder than the SAT quant, but the way my cousin and her class prepped for years is literally prepping for the test.

Imagine the SAT quant prep book with its "These are they types of questions you will encounter in the test" and take that a few steps further. Wayy higher level maths and more, but not infinite, models of questions on which they prep for every day and night for years.

[nopinsight]

By extension of your statement, would solving International Math Olympiad questions only require intensive preparation and not creativity as well? (IMO topics are limited by design.)

How about writing programs to solve problems someone else has solved elsewhere (and you are not privy to the solution)?

[foodislove]

Exactly. That's how we prepped for Putnam

That writing programs to solve problems that someone else has solved elsewhere? That's called IBM Watson and Jeopardy.

[nopinsight]

Interesting. So what would be your definition and/or examples of 'creativity' in math, science, or software development?