By Jan van der Putten
Once, China was the cradle of great inventions, then it became a land of communist copycats, and now the great inventors are once again Chinese. But didn’t we agree that the Communist Party was stifling the creative spirit? Jan van der Putten, previously China correspondent, provides a fresh take on how we see China.
Made in China: new nameplates
Jeans, Christmas lights, household goods, toys; for years, Chinese products were dirt-cheap and often of inferior quality. If you wanted cutting-edge tech, you certainly didn’t look to China, as the West held the patents. But now, the tables have turned. Today, most patents are registered under Chinese names, and the latest technologies are “Made in China.” Examples abound. Chinese electric cars – even self-driving ones – are far better than Tesla’s and much cheaper. The fastest high-speed trains are of Chinese make. Chinese engineers have built a miniature drone that explores the deepest ocean trenches. The Chinese tech company DeepSeek has revolutionized artificial intelligence. Chinese robots are conquering the global market. China is the world leader in quantum communication. And China has just developed a lithography machine that could rival ASML’s latest model.
Evil inventions
Do not think that all Chinese innovations only serve the progress of humanity. Take the facial recognition cameras that litter China: the cameras on the street that identify people by the way they walk. Or China’s Great Firewall: the most advanced and effective internet censorship system in existence. And what about the most modern weaponry, hybrid or otherwise? For example, the device that can cut the thickest deep-sea cables? China also has the most modern fighter planes and warships, missiles that can sink aircraft carriers, and technology to destroy enemy satellites.
One exception to the rule
Without the support of the government, the new discoveries would probably not have come about, or would have come much later. And when the government, that is, the Party, wants something, it usually happens. The one major exception: football. Xi Jinping wanted to make the People’s Republic the largest and most powerful football nation in the world. Instead, China became one of the most crooked and corrupt football countries, with recent lows being the sentencing of dozens of officials, referees, coaches and players to lengthy prison sentences and a humiliating defeat (0 – 7) of the national selection against Japan.
Firsts from a distant past
China’s current creativity has a long history. Were the ancient Chinese not the first great inventors? To them, the world owes the Four Great Inventions: paper, gunpowder, printing, and the compass. The list of Chinese pioneering inventions is long. Just a few examples: paper money, silk, toothpaste, newspapers, the abacus, water clocks, kites, umbrellas, banking, lotteries, matches, fishing nets, landmines, fireworks, the wheelbarrow, the parachute, and the rudder. For centuries, China was the world’s most technologically advanced nation. The Industrial Revolution in the West brought an end to that leading role.
China became a victim of the ‘early-mover disadvantage’ and its own sense of superiority. In 1792, the British envoy Lord Macartney traveled to China, which – according to the ambitions of England’s textile manufacturers – was supposed to become their biggest export market. He was flatly rejected: “We have no need for your products,” the emperor declared. And so, China missed the Industrial Revolution, and after nineteen centuries as the world’s largest economy, it was surpassed by Britain. London took revenge with the Opium Wars, marking the start of the “Century of Humiliation.” Western powers and Japan seized China in a stranglehold, the economy collapsed, civil wars claimed millions of lives, and the empire fell.
Risen from the ashes
In the troubles before and after, Chinese creatives worked on a special invention: a new form of government that had to break with the stagnant system that no longer suited the new era. But the system only really changed after a long civil war was won by Mao Zedong’s communists. During his harsh dictatorship, the giant China shrank into an economic dwarf. After Mao, the economy and, in one effort, the Party were saved by a drastic change of course. With foreign investments, a huge manufacturing industry was built up and an unprecedented export offensive began.
No inventions were made during that time of rapid growth. China acquired its industrial knowledge by copying the technology of foreign investors. A special economic sector was even set up for this purpose. Foreigners contributed capital and knowledge to joint ventures between Chinese and non-Chinese companies. We thought that was unfair. Good to know that first the British and then the American economy became great through the theft of intellectual property. Ever since the Byzantines smuggled the silkworm from China, emerging world powers have considered stealing other people’s knowledge a normal practice.
From pupil back to master
Moreover, for the Chinese, copying is not theft, it is a tribute to the original creator. Imitation, plagiarism, forgery – to a true Confucianist, these are not wrongful acts. On the contrary, they are a pupil’s homage to the master. By replicating the master’s work as faithfully as possible, one upholds an ancient cultural tradition – and contributes to China’s thriving counterfeit industry.
There is another justification for the appropriation of knowledge: historical reparation. After all, foreigners never paid for China’s inventions in the past – so why should the Chinese pay for foreign innovations now?
The old business model of exporting low-quality goods at cutthroat prices has been scaled back. Increasingly, China has focused on developing and manufacturing high-tech products. As a result, its reliance on foreign producers in strategic sectors has diminished, strengthening its position as a global power. In today’s uncertain world, this makes the People’s Republic less vulnerable to the erratic whims of figures like Trump.
Western China watchers have hardly recovered from their surprise of seeing China transform from a producer of shoddy goods to a manufacturer of cutting-edge technology in record time. This defies one of the most persistent Western misconceptions about China – that such a leap was impossible. After all, the Party was supposed to hate creative minds, as they think for themselves rather than blindly obey. This is certainly true for politically sensitive matters (of which there are many), and it’s worth remembering that all organizations – from sports clubs to the Academy of Sciences – operate under Party control. Researchers whose conclusions displease the Party can find themselves out of a job. Yet, paradoxically, the Party actively encourages high-tech development. And so, the Chinese have once again become great inventors.
Jan van der Putten is a writer and journalist, who previously served, among other things, as a correspondent in China. His most recent book is “Tijd van illusies: Mijn kleine geschiedenis van de wereld", published by Querido Facto.
