MIT people push the frontiers of technology with a passion for facts, so here’s one that demands attention: it’s now clear that China is not an innovation also-ran that prospers mainly by copying others’ ideas and producing them quickly at low cost. Indeed, China is advancing rapidly on a unified strategy—“Made in China 2025”—to lead the world in manufacturing and technology.
In quantum computing, 5G networks, and high-speed rail, technology being developed in China is world class. In mobile payment and in facial and spoken-language recognition, Chinese companies are global leaders, having made the most of their advanced algorithms and advantages in scale and data access. China is also investing boldly in research, directly supporting startups and recruiting talent around the world. And it has unrivaled capacity to rapidly ramp up large-scale production of advanced technology products—the fast lane from innovation to market. These and many more advances have been impressive.
Recent US efforts to stop intellectual-property theft and unfair trade practices—even if fully effective—would not allow this country to relax back into a position of unquestioned innovation leadership. Unless America responds to the scale and intensity of this challenge, China is likely to become the world’s most advanced technological nation, and the source of the most advanced technological products, in not much more than a decade.
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