The Chinese rocket scientist Qian Xuesan once asked, “Why does China produce so many clever people, but so few geniuses?” He died last year at the age of 97, since when a plethora of answers have been bandied about in cafes, bulletin boards and social networks. Still, it’s said Bill Gates once quipped, “If a genius is one-in-a-million, then China has more than a lot geniuses”.

So why haven’t all those clever souls and unsung geniuses not created a more innovative Chinese society? China, it’s true, excels at innovation, but not disruptive Innovation. “Small i” innovation is about patching and work-arounds – the work of clever people. “Big I” Innovation is about changing the course of markets and even of societies – the work of genius. Chinese culture and history have always been supportive of “small i” innovation, due to the capricious nature of local government policies and decisions; and due to dramatic turns of events – revolts, revolutions, banditry, dynastic dissolution – that quickly destroy the fruits of labor. Hence, the tendency of so many constructions and creations in Chinese society to be just “good enough”; after all, who knows how long such works will be able to stand?

The Chinese government throughout the ages has not supported disruptive innovation in the vein of the Western style. Western entrepreneurs look forward to upsetting the apple cart (Americans, in general, more than Europeans); Chinese rule throughout history has not inculcated the Western sense of Innovation through its laws (meant to maintain stability); arbitrary application of the laws (meant to maintain local control as conditions change); or through the value it places on copying/memorization in education (meant to “harmonize” thinking and behavior).

The current government trend toward absorption of parts of the private sector (guojinmintui) by the State does not bode well for Innovation in China; nor does the march toward heavily bounding the internet from international flows of information. Increasingly, any Chinese Innovation will first of all develop from the requirements of the country’s home market; the technology and information walls the government is putting in place will severely inhibit Innovation applicability in international markets.

Now that’s just plain dumb

Read more:  NYT