
America wants to believe China can’t innovate. Tech tells a different story - miraj
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/america-wants-to-believe-china-cant-innovate-tech-tells-a-different-story/2016/07/19/c17cbea9-6ee6-479c-81fa-54051df598c5_story.html
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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12135777](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12135777)

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quaunaut
This story hasn't convinced me that China's startup scene is anything to pay
attention to, outside of China.

Nearly every single one of their major successes, are successes in China, and
_only_ China. Those successes, as great as they are, pale in comparison to the
foreign competition in hard numbers, let alone quality and breadth of
software.

Furthermore, are any of these services anything that hadn't been done before a
dozen times? It isn't innovation just because you have State protectionism and
made it on a computer. Nor will it necessarily lead to a major financial
victory beyond China.

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smallnamespace
Sure, but once the Chinese market is saturated, those same companies will have
a lot of cash to throw around to acquire foreign market share and develop
their technology.

After all, Japan used to be a by-word for cheap, underpowered cars until the
70s.

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allenleein
Look at Wechat's ecosystem in China then you will realize thats Facebook
Messenger's future.

China’s WeChat Foretells Facebook / Microsoft Bot Platforms’ Future

>>> [https://chatbotsmagazine.com/chinas-wechat-foretells-
faceboo...](https://chatbotsmagazine.com/chinas-wechat-foretells-facebook-
microsoft-bot-platforms-future-278c3bd4bf14#.onz1tmaam)

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smallnamespace
Turns out the Great Firewall had the side benefit of protecting China's
nascent tech companies from foreign competition.

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meira
And others countries should do the same. Brazil included.

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ben_jones
Define "innovation". According to most tech journalists Theranos innovated. By
that definition, I innovated today when I took a shortcut home. Is China
innovating? In some places. Is Silicon Valley innovating? In some places. What
are most people doing? Not innovating.

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newman8r
the situation has changed in the last decade. If I was working on a hardware
project I would seriously consider relocating to Shenzhen. Anyone not aware of
the what's going on over there should check out this documentary
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY&list=PLMOGwaNoHu...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY&list=PLMOGwaNoHulir88Gz17PftiLMPmZ26WZ8&index=28)

