For decades, many Americans derided China as a nation of copycats incapable of creativity, let alone breakthrough innovation. Authoritarianism and central planning were thought to be naturally inimical to fresh ideas. Rapid technological advancement, many in the United States believed, required the kind of fearless, “disruptive” thinking that was most at home in a freewheeling, democratic society.
Over the past several years, however, the narrative has shifted, and any complacency over U.S. technological superiority has evaporated. Business columns explaining China’s seeming inability to innovate have given way to op-eds warning that it is poised to surpass the United States in strategic technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G. Policymakers in Washington who had long been content to leave technology up to Silicon Valley are now racing to find ways to bolster U.S. technological capabilities and counter Chinese progress. But making effective technology policy requires a clear understanding of how both countries got here, and what that means going forward.
