A common narrative on China, prevalent in the United States, often says that China’s top-down, monolithic innovation policy has led to economic success. The rep

A common narrative on China, prevalent in the United States, often says that China’s top-down, monolithic innovation policy has led to economic success. The report calls this a “myth.” Ernst argues that things are never so simple nor so homogeneous in China. The report quotes Harvard’s Mark Wu: “What makes China complicated is that, while the Party-state holds vast control levers, it allows market forces to play out in huge swaths of the economy.”