[elliotto]

The OP was talking about Shi Zhengrong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shi_Zhengrong who came to Australia (my country) in the 90s, learned a bunch about photovoltaics, was unable to make a business here due to our failed government policies, then returned to China and made a pv megabusiness.

The truth of the matter is that most cutting edge research is spearheaded by the west. The problem is that the west can't build or prioritise anything useful with it.

[gizmo]

China produces more scientific papers than the US or EU. China produces 30% of papers published in the world's top journals. China also produces more top tier scientific papers (1% most cited) than the US.

A decade ago the west was clearly ahead of China in fundamental research. Not anymore.