[mahranch]

> Chinese culture of copy-catting freely doesn't help.

The problem with that, is that it's a vicious circle. Innovation is the foundation for future innovations. It builds on itself. It lays the groundwork and foundation for what comes next. By leapfrogging and cheating its way to the top (or near the top) they are sacrificing that crucial infrastructure for future discoveries and innovations.

China has to copy & steal IPs because it simply doesn't have the culture to compete. They're one of the least innovative countries on Earth, year after year. And the only way to change that is by allowing its citizens to think creatively, outside the box -- to be able to challenge authority. But China doesn't want that; they want conforming little worker bees who follow the party line.

[0815test]

> China has to copy & steal IPs because it simply doesn't have the culture to compete. They're one of the least innovative countries on Earth, year after year.

Funny thing, that's exactly what people used to say about Japan, and then about South Korea. (And the typical work environments in both countries do not exactly encourage creativity or challenging the status quo, either. So I'm not sure what difference that might make.)

[echaozh]

I wonder if this comment is racist. China never was and is not the least innovative countries on Earth. The Chinese internet companies are micro-innovating at a speed no country in the world can compete.

Let's say this, the counterparts of Facebook and Twitter has already fallen or on its way to fall out of favor in China because people found more interesting ways to waste their time and find useless information. Soon, you will find Facebook and Twitter doing the same, and in that order.

Sites and apps surviving the Chinese market are the real winners, and those who cannot will fail in other countries too. That is the power of a large enough testbed.

[yding]

This is just wrong. By many measures, China is one of the most innovative countries on earth. Take scientific citations for example: https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/chinas-citations-catch...

[mellow-lake-day]

How much of those are legitimate though? There have been cases of fraud and falsifying information.

"Since 2012, the country has retracted more scientific papers because of faked peer reviews than all other countries and territories put together,..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/world/asia/china-science-...

[Leary]

Given that the Nature Index only measures top quality publications, China's contribution to science is second only to the US's.

https://www.natureindex.com/annual-tables/2018/country/all

[Permit]

Scientific citations seem like a very poor metric for a country that is plagued by scientific fraud.

[megaremote]

Do you have any other benchmark apart from citations?

[Leary]

Bloomberg Innovation index: https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/3hi4O/2/?abcnewsembedheight=55... China is 16, ahead of the UK and Canada

Global Innovation Index: https://www.globalinnovationindex.org/gii-2018-report China is 17

[SZJX]

That's just such a simplistic and naive view of the matters. You've probably just read too much stereotyping propaganda, unfortunately.

A simple example is how Facebook and co. have recently expressed they're looking at WeChat as an example to learn from. There are many more.