Ask HN: Besides TikTok, what other innovations have come out of China recently?

[jn31415]

For several years now, there have been talks about China catching up or even overtaking Western countries when it comes to innovation. But what concrete signs are there?

I've read multiple times that China is supposedly now a leading publisher of AI research papers. But how come ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion and all these other recent AI innovations didn't come out of China? Even the three giants, Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu seem to be barely able to make a dent in foreign markets (outside of straight acquisitions).

And Temu appears to be burning a lot of cash to do something similar as Wish, which hasn't been doing very well lately.

It would be interesting to hear from people active in all kinds of fields, even outside of software tech.

[PaulHoule]

In photography a lot of the most interesting products come from China. For instance there is

https://us.kandaovr.com/

which makes stereoscopic and panoramic cameras and there is also 7Artisans

https://7artisans.store/

which makes products that are not “high tech” because they leave out auto focus and optical stabilization and use relatively simple designs but they put all the money into the glass and good build quality so you get affordable lenses that take pictures like you haven’t seen before

https://mastodon.social/@UP8/111061017008323474

and just does great in low light conditions

https://mastodon.social/@UP8/111077882869934997

which is the kind of innovation I like.

[ApolloRising]

Any other camera or lens sites that you like a lot? Or photo software that you find useful but uncommon?

[coldtea]

>For several years now, there have been talks about China catching up or even overtaking Western countries when it comes to innovation. But what concrete signs are there?

Technical innovation is not the same as "here are some huge FAANG-style companies". Baidu, Alibaba, Temu etc are also not about innovation, nor is Google, X, Facebook, and co (glorified internet scale crud apps) are not about innovation in their main business. One would think that capturing the hostile US/EU market is also not a goal for Baidu, Alibaba and co (they'll just be litigated away).

The critical technologies are not confined in the Googles and Facebooks of this world, the most critical ones are under the radar when it comes to the public:

"China leads the world in 37 out of 44 critical technologies, with Western democracies falling behind in the race for scientific and research breakthroughs, a report by an Australian think tank has found. China is in a position to become the world’s top technology superpower, with its dominance already spanning defence, space, robotics, energy, the environment, biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), advanced materials and key quantum technology, according to the report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI)".

China is doing good work in research, they have better than western manufacturing expertise, skills, and capacities, and they have been producing top of the line products of their own in several areas.

For an example in a more visible consumer space where they dominate, take DJI drones, as an example. Also gimbals of various kinds. And companies like Insta360 and DJI are also starting to overtake GoPro in action cameras.

[taurath]

In the culinary world China (along with broader pan-Asian culture) has a thriving innovation ecosystem that is completely unmatched in the west. There's some new popular dish or street food every month, there's a dynamicism that is quite exciting. Innovation can be things like the ability to build trains and infrastructure.

[masayune]

Here’s there site for specific rankings!

https://techtracker.aspi.org.au/

[hxypqr]

Drones may be an example, they played a role in the Russia-Ukraine war

[jejeyyy77]

a lot of the AI innovations are coming out of china

[MichaelRazum]

which?