[MathYouF]

I wonder how much of that is a result of the state enforced cultural isolation-

(as a means of decreasing the chances of information and ideas which they actively censure from spreading in the population, ideas which would be likely undermine the current leadership's ability to maintain unilateral power. Just as Russia has experienced with its citizens as they become more connected to others outside of the country, whose individual liberties and relatively meritocratic economic systems they've begun to push for domestically)

-rather than lacking technical merits in what they create or the speed at which they do so.