Does China lack innovation?

Swanson (US)

It is not economics or opportunity, but the educational system in China that holds it back from becoming a nation of innovators. When at an Ivy League university in the US, my husband, who was on the faculty, and I both noticed the difficulty that many Chinese graduate students had in thinking independently. As long as students in China are rewarded for following authority and punished for disagreeing, there will be little innovation. As long as senior faculty at Chinese universities holds power over junior faculty, there will be little innovation. As long as those in the educational system are unwilling to relinquish their personal power for the sake of the country's greater good, China will remain a nation of limited innovation.