The passage below (highlighted in blue) from the latest edition of The Economist exaggerates the perceived threat posed by China. In his 2023 book "The Rise and Fall of the EAST: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline," Yasheng Huang, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management, examines China's rise through the prisms of exams, autocracy, stability, and technology. He cautions that these factors risk stifling innovation, fostering social unrest, and hindering economic reforms. Demographic shifts and geopolitical tensions further complicate these challenges, potentially contributing to a decline in China's trajectory. https://www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/china-innovation-growth-based-on-hong-kong-outsourcing-rule-of-law-market-institutions-by-yasheng-huang-2023-08
Furthermore, economic supremacy hinges on a flourishing start-up ecosystem, yet recent trends show that young Chinese increasingly prefer government jobs. For more on this issue, refer to a recent article published in The Economist https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2024/04/02/yu-hua-on-why-young-chinese-no-longer-want-to-work-for-private-firms
“If
there is one thing the Chinese Communist Party and America’s
security hawks agree on, it is that innovation is the secret to…superiority... As we report this week,
Chinese science and innovation are making rapid progress....If America wants to
maintain its lead—and to get the most benefit from the research of China’s
talented scientists—it would do better to focus less on keeping Chinese science
down and more on pushing itself ahead...It is time to lay these old ideas to
rest. China is now a leading scientific power. Its
scientists produce some of the world’s best research, particularly in
chemistry, physics and materials science. They contribute to more papers in prestigious journals
than their colleagues from America and the European Union and they produce more
work that is highly cited....All this poses a dilemma for
America. With more good science comes new knowledge that benefits all humanity,
by solving the world’s problems and improving lives, as well as deepening
understanding...Rather than copy China’s
tactics, America should sharpen its own innovative edge, by enhancing the
traits that made it successful. One
of its strengths is openness. America has long been a magnet for the world’s brightest minds,
and it should continue to attract them…”
PS - In the aforementioned context, let's not overlook that Russia's scientific capacity does not even match that of tiny Portugal.https://19-pacheco-torgal-19.blogspot.com/2024/05/chatgpt-predicts-that-by-2025-russia.html
