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I think it is unlikely that China is ever going to really transition away from a heavy industry / copycat technology economy, until its current government is ov
by veidr 14y ago
I think it is unlikely that China is ever going to really transition away from a heavy industry / copycat technology economy, until its current government is overthrown or otherwise replaced.
This is a fundamental problem with totalitarian regimes that oppress their people. A key part of denying people freedom is preventing free exchange of information. Happily, though, the leading edge of economic success seems to increasingly rely on unfettered flow of knowledge and information.
This is, overall, good for the free world, as advances in information technology yield increased productivity for both organizations and individuals. It is not that good for autocratic regimes like the USSR and China, because they have to actively fight the tide of improving technology -- which both consumes energy and keeps their population less knowledgeable/capable, thereby disadvantaging them in the increasingly information- and knowledge-dependent modern economy.
- tianshuo 14y agoI agree that most of the IT sector in China is copycat. But there is emerging innovation, eg. Tencent Wechat has no comparable competitor IMHO.
- veidr 14y agoI definitely wouldn't argue with you; historically, China is the source of a huge portion of humankind's inventions, and I am sure there is a great deal of innovation happening there right now. My point was more narrowly that the current system of government there, and the lack of information freedom the automatically comes with it, presents a serious obstacle for innovative businesses (particularly anything to do with computing, mobile, and internet, a huge swath of the modern economy).
- biesnecker 14y agoAgreed, weixin is awesome, but how likely are they to gain real international traction so long as messages from anywhere are subject to the same censorship regime?