Innovation and China's Global Emergence

Book excerpt: A pressing investigation into the global implications of China's shift to an innovation economy. As China shifts to an economy driven by innovation and productivity growth, the global implications of this transition will be significant. Amid the rise of techno-nationalism and a changing strategic calculus around the world, the manner and means of China's transition faces a high degree of scrutiny. China is attempting to balance a reliance on overseas sources of technology alongside efforts to strengthen domestic innovation capabilities as a hedge against the risks of a United States-led "decoupling." In these circumstances, it is essential to understand the many different forces of change within China, and the way China responds to outside changes. The evolution of China's innovation economy will be one of the key economic stories of the early twenty-first century, and the world will need China as a source of innovation in the decades ahead. The aim of this book is to help build a better framework for policymakers to find a new equilibrium in negotiating the terms of an oncoming shift in geopolitics.