I mean who knows what the future holds…

But why isn’t Russia a technological powerhouse…

Germany, Japan, Korea… these are not authoritarian countries, with nightmarish political systems. They ain’t perfect, but they ain’t totalitarian hellscapes either.

Just because things are going well somewhere, doesn’t mean the trajectory holds.

Iran was a beacon of progress in the East, now look at it… Brazil was poised to become a powerhouse but things fell apart.

No doubt Chinese industry has come a long way, turbo boosted by Western companies wanting a piece of the action but as the country becomes more insular, more extreme… let’s see how things go.

China’s rise was not Xi’s doing. He’s just the rich kid inheriting his Daddy’s fortune.

Wasn’t really the point I tried to make, just by sheer percentages alone, China must have some real innovators.

The main issue is the political culture and systems of government and business.

Chinese people are just as capable as anyone else but only certain cultures seem to produce free thinking, trend busting and renegade inventors.

Look at the peak of the USSR, produced some of the smartest people in history. Unfortunately the rate of technological advancement stalled and suffered, because of the corrupt cronyism that’s rampant in communist states.

China isn’t a meritocracy, only favourable people to the regime are allowed to succeed and this is what stifles real innovation.

Productivity ground to a halt in the USSR due to massive corruption and I don’t see much evidence that this won’t happen in China. The regime at the top has tightened, Xi has surrounded himself by weak, yes men and expelled any dissenting voices.

The West tried to move closer to Russia and China, opening their economies up, hoping it would bring the nations closer. It has failed. Putin built an army with the profits and is trying to rebuilt the Soviet Union, Xi has centralised power and doubled down on Authoritarianism.

It will be interesting to see how the two economies manage without Western input, they might do fine but history is not on the side of corrupt, authoritarian regimes.

You say this but a lot of technical improvements in China have come from importing western specialists.

If you look at a lot of the high tech companies manufacturing there, the design teams and lead engineers come from the west.

The Chinese education system is kinda batshit insane and competitive on a level, few of us in the west can understand. It doesn’t really reward creative thinking or encourage people with novel ideas, quite the opposite really.

Not to say some really bright people don’t make it through but then they are presented with the classic issues within communist systems… cronyism and just endless red tape, very un-talented people gate keeping and protecting themselves. It leads to little or no innovation.