Don't Expect Apple-Like Innovation in China

China Frets: Innovators Stymied Here

By Li Yuan

Millions of Chinese flooded the popular micro blogging site Sina Weibo to tweet their condolences on the death of Steve Jobs over the past two days. They also raised the question: Why isn't there a Steve Jobs in China?

The tone of the resulting discussion was almost unanimously pessimistic. As is always the case on the Chinese Internet, the discussion quickly moved to talk about the problems in China's political, economic and legal systems. Wang Wei, chairman of the Chinese Museum of Finance, tweeted, "In a society with an authoritarian political system, monopolistic business environment, backward-looking culture and prevalent technology theft, talking about a master of innovation? Not a chance! Don't even think about it."

China may be the manufacturer of the world, but many are frustrated that Chinese companies are better at knocking off others' original work than coming up with innovative ideas. The commemoration of Mr. Jobs' genius highlighted the dilemma.

Chinese companies themselves will perform as well as Apple Inc., but their products won't match up, Kai-Fu Lee told his eight million followers on Weibo. "Chinese companies can be expected to have the market valuation and business model like Apple's within a decade, but it will be difficult to expect any type of Apple-like innovation," he tweeted.

The former head of Google China and founder of a start-up incubator Innovation Works said by phone that Chinese schools focus too much on memorization and don't encourage critical thinking. "It's not that Chinese are not smart or don't have the potential. Look at Jerry Yang of Yahoo Inc. and Steve Chen of YouTube," he said, referring to the two Internet entrepreneurs who were both born in Taiwan and migrated to the U.S. at young ages.

Chen Zhiwu, a finance professor at Yale University, tweeted that in Chinese schools, "The first thing the teachers do is to rub down the edges of those students who are different from the crowd."

One of the most popular postings on Mr. Jobs' legacy came from scholar Wu Jiaxiang. "If Apple is a fruit on a tree, its branches are the freedom to think and create, and its root is constitutional democracy," he wrote. "An authoritarian nation may be able to build huge projects collectively but will never be able to produce science and technology giants." On that, Wang Ran, founder of a boutique investment bank China eCapital Corp., added, "And its trunk is a society whose legal system acknowledges the value of intellectual property."