Abstract

Profession Xiaolan FU from Oxford University is going to introduce her research work and newly published book on Chinese industrial innovations.

Drawing from her recent book, China’s Path to Innovation (published by Cambridge University Press), Xiaolan will examine the transformation of China’s economy over the last three decades by evaluating its increasing industrial competitiveness as revealed through surging exports and rising technological intensity in the composition of exports. She will discuss how China managed to develop and upgrade its technological capabilities at such a remarkable speed. In doing so she seeks to answer the question of how China can enhance its indigenous innovation capability to move from imitation to innovation. She will address this important question by examining 1) how China can build up a strong innovation system through an Open National Innovation System in the era of globalisation; and 2) how China can fulfil its innovation potential by reforming incentive structure, strengthening institutional framework, and enhancing the level and quality of innovation inputs. She will also review the experience to see if China can be a model of innovation that other countries can learn from.