China’s Drive for ‘Indigenous Innovation’

James McGregor, author and consultant with APCO Worldwide, spoke at the Hong Kong American Chamber of Commerce to discuss topics covered in his publication, “China’s Drive for ‘Indigenous Innovation.’”  Generally, McGregor’s view is that the recently instituted policy of Indigenous Innovation has the potential to strip valuable intellectual property, one of the United State’s most valuable assets, out of U.S. companies, thereby making them uncompetitive in the global market.  Since China is the only place where companies can scale their technology, U.S. companies will give away their rights in exchange for access to the market. 

While many appear to agree that such a policy would in and of itself actual create innovation without a bottom up change in educational structures and funding mechanisms, there are differing ideas about how harmful these China policies will be to U.S. companies.  However, China’s copycat past leaves people mostly cynical that China will become the innovation leader anytime soon.