[chillacy]

I don’t want to take a side but the parent is almost certainly going to point out that academic papers != innovation (especially with the news that lots of papers from China have falsified data, paper mills, etc).

What are actual innovations made by China in the past 20 years? On demand bikes comes to mind as one example.

[adrianN]

I'm no expert on the matter, but I hear that they have excellent supply chains and extremely flexible assembly lines.

[aembleton]

e-Cigs and consumer drones.