'To Bless All Mankind' July 10, 2017 Issue

China’s source of creative growth

The <i>Monitor’s</i> Editorial Board

Adapted from an article published in The Christian Science Monitor, March 7, 2017.

China’s premier, Li Keqiang, recently offered a simple solution for his country’s biggest problem, which is that the world’s second-largest economy is growing at its lowest rate in a quarter century. The solution, said Mr. Li, is to boost innovation among its large pool of scientists and engineers.

“Having reached the current stage of development, China can now advance only through reform and innovation,” he told the National People’s Congress in March. He compared the economy to a butterfly trying to break out of a cocoon. And indeed, China is experiencing its lowest growth in funding of research and development since 1998.

Yet despite the premier’s call for scientific breakthroughs to stimulate Chinese industries, it is not clear if the government has much faith in the creativity of the country’s researchers. An official plan called “Made in China 2025” sets out an industrial strategy that appears to call for attaining even more technology from advanced economies. Last year, for example, Chinese firms invested heavily in European companies, up by 77 percent from the year before and more than four times the flow of investments by European companies in China.

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