December 2003
Chinese Technology: The Right Stuff?
Is China the next technology capital of the world? So one might think, given the breathless hype that has accompanied China-based manufacturers’ capture of several segments of the global consumer electronics market. This hype has been stoked by the grandiose ambitions of Chinese planners, who over the past decade released a steady stream of policies promoting their ambition to create a wholly-owned technology base.
Most of these nonsensical plans have come to grief on the rocks of technological and commercial reality. Current efforts to create standards for a host of technology-based products, which enjoy considerable play in the foreign media, are likely to meet a similar fate.
Also in this issue:
Frank Gaenssmantel assesses the nature of China’s debts
Sino-foreign joint ventures make a return from the dead