
China is no longer a nation of tech copycats - pmcpinto
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2016/04/features/china-tech-copycat-yy-meituan-xinchejian-zepp-labs
======
ChuckMcM
This reads largely true for me, but it is also pretty obviously not true on a
serious scale (compare the F-35 fighter to the J-31 fighter). That said,
raising a younger generation of people who think outside the box has its own
perils for any government where some boxes are not meant to be left (I include
the US government in this list as well). I am a strong advocate of critical
thinking and independent verification, but I can tell you that it gets me into
trouble more often than it gets me accolades :-). The response to such
thinking can be harsh. People who think critically are often considered
"intellectuals" and China has dealt with such people harshly in the past, even
at the expense of the greater country. Here in the US it is used as an insult
in circles where the smart choice would dictate a different path than the
current policy (yes I'm thinking about the whole global warming "debate").

Bottom line is that this is both good and bad news for China.

~~~
netheril96
> I am a strong advocate of critical thinking and independent verification,
> but I can tell you that it gets me into trouble more often than it gets me
> accolades :-).

I was discouraged by that fact before, and wondered whether joining the herd
thinking was actually better for my own life. Until I avoided the China stock
market crash last year, where many others persist in their illusion that the
stock market can boom even when the fundamentals are weak.

In fact, critical thinking and independent verification only get you into
trouble if you publicly speak out. If you just keep the results to yourself,
you can find opportunities and escape disasters before others, assuming your
thinking gets you closer to the truth rather than further. Why enlighten the
fools if you can just exploit them? Especially since they won't listen anyway?

~~~
rurban
> "stock market crash"

The fundamentals lost their annual rise from 6% to 3%, which is still a much
better rate than any other major economy. I kept my chinese investments and
it's still raising with 3.5%. True rises, not artificial booms.

Still more secure than the promised 10-20% interest from monetary gambling by
wallstreet, not backed up by economic advantages.

------
kev6168
IMHO, China is still full of tech copycats.

What they have done so far is applying western technologies/business models to
the Chinese market, maybe some modifications here and there for the local
culture and marketing schemes, but hardly innovative.

Now, can you name a few things coming out of China in the last twenty years
that are relatively innovative and influential? Maybe things like Linux, Java,
Netscape, Rails, Jquery, Twitter, Instagram, etc. The definitions for
'innovative' and 'influential' are up to you, I am just genuinely curious.

~~~
yq
Wechat, High-speed train, Taobao's 11.11 sales, DJI Uav, Buses, hikvision,
Foxit PDF, SPMC.

~~~
freyr
These may be great products that have advanced the state-of-the-art, but how
is Wechat novel? It appears to be a pretty generic chat app similar to
WhatsApp, which debuted a year earlier. Of course, almost all western products
(including whatsapp) are derivative of something that came earlier too.

~~~
yq
You can transfer money with wechat.

Wechat has a eco system that links to your checking account. Therefore, you
can pay your bills: Taxi, fresh fruit from street, pre-order movie seat while
you are on the way. I had an two weeks no-wallet-challenge last year in china.
The 3rd day I gave up, not because it doesn't work, but it sounds like
documentary about surfing internet nonstop for 24 back to Y2K years.

payment: [https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-
store...](https://www.techinasia.com/day-with-wechat-payments-in-stores)

movie: [http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-
movie-...](http://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/smsh/how-to-buy-movie-
tickets-with-wechat-alipay-and-gewara)

whatsapp, snapchat etc still not very close to wechat on these functions.

~~~
freyr
Looks pretty cool!

------
contingencies
So last night I met an interesting fellow who grew up in Germany but is native
Chinese. He is an electrical engineer. I said great, I am looking for an
electrical engineer to partner with on a project, I handle the software. Bang,
we get talking. Meeting later today. I think we are going to do a physical
electronic product startup here. We are in southwest China, at the edge of the
Himalayas, miles from the megacities of the east. I have been here on and off
for 15 years, and it really feels like this is the best time yet to get
capital and try things.

PS. I am sure I have read this article before, somewhat recently.

------
cLeEOGPw
This it how it always works with everything. You "copycat" your way to the
state-of-the-art and only then start innovating. Otherwise you're just
reinventing the wheel. Once China completely catches up it will start it's own
thing, I am sure.

------
zaroth
I find this impossible to believe; "In 2000, barely four per cent of China was
middle class - meaning with an income ranging from $9,000 (£6,270) to $34,000
- but by 2012, fully two-thirds had climbed into that bracket." They must be
counting something as a subsidy which people aren't actually consuming. To
think that almost all of US GDP growth is occurring in the top, this would say
almost all of China GDP growth is occurring in the bottom. But really saying
that 60% of your population.. so the claim is that ~800 million people have
moved into "middle class" in 15 years... And "middle class" is defined as
"spending less than 50% of income on necessities".

------
known
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants" \--Isaac
Newton

------
univerio
Website usability complaint: trying to highlight a caption under a photo sends
you to the gallery, making you lose your spot in the article.

------
x5n1
"of only"

there fixed it for you.

------
jsn117
yeah, why the black turtlenecks then?

------
tallerholler
from the title I am going to assume this is an April fools prank?

------
EuAndreh
Well, we should all be glad that the exemples from US are spreading to the
rest of the world! If only more countries stopped being copycats and started
actually copying the US model. God bless America. Humpf

The title is also really bad, as if China was at a given time a _whole nation_
of copycats (although the article itself doesn't insist on this point).

People reverse engineer your product/company. So what?

