What we (EU USA RU) really need to fear about China

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Good article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/what-we-really-need-to-fear-about-china/2011/09/14/gIQAPrMy0K_story.html

Excerpts:

The changes I have seen in the entrepreneurial scene in China during my visits over the last six years are dramatic. It used to be that Chinese graduates strove to join Western multinationals. And because of the taboo associated with failure and the low social esteem granted to start-ups, parents discouraged their children from becoming entrepreneurs. No longer. With the success of entrepreneurs such as Jack Ma and Kaifu Lee and the fortunes being reaped by the earlier generations of technology startups, Chinese youth have role models, and parents are becoming more accepting of entrepreneurship. Joining a startup is now the “in thing” in China—just as in Silicon Valley. And it’s becoming acceptable to fail and start again.

There are start-up incubators springing up in all of China’s major cities. According to Lux Research, China venture capital investments reached $5.4 billion in 2010—an increase of 79 percent from the year before. There is so much Angel and Venture Capital available that investors have to compete for investment. One incubator I visited last week, in Beijing, called Garage Café, is offering free office space and Internet connectivity to start-ups just so that it can jump to the front of the line on investments.

China has a chance to harness all this new energy and lead the world in innovation. But that doesn’t mean that it will. I asked students and local entrepreneurs about the obstacles that they expected to face. Nearly all of them cited two fears: That a bigger company, such as Baidu or Tencent, would steal their technology—because Chinese intellectual property laws are ineffective—and that once they achieved significant success, government officials would swoop in to control the company or demand a cut of the action.

Until China’s rule of law is strengthened and entrepreneurs are given the freedoms that they need, China may see a lot of start-up activity, but world-changing innovation won’t happen. Once China clears away those final obstacles, though, watch out.

[leeholsen]

This may be true but China also has a bigger housing crisis than the US coming and they have a bigger problem than Russia with not enough young people to replace the old.

China may takeover the world eventually, but it's not happening within the next 50 years. They are going to follow the US for the next 20 years.

[Looney]

Sorry could not resist digging up an old post but it was on the first page of this section!

Funny this, we have been watching China for the past 15 years and could have told you in the 90's that they are one to keep an eye on. They had/have heavy financial investments in the USA, and could be a major threat to the economy if they pulled the plug. It was only a matter of time before we seen the start up boom in China as well, but then this has always been going on outside the watchful eyes of the westerners. At one point I was considering learning mainstream Chinese just in case in my lifetime it really swang that way. With the laws they have out there (lack or difference) the housing crisis shouldn't be much of one for long, they are currently building roads in that would appear to be in the middle of no where, so it wont be long for someone to cash in on the housing situation. STill keeping an eye over there though, another 5 years or so and they will have more car manufacturering companies chinese based than the rest of the world put together (forget your specialists makers!)

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China has decided to commit mass suicide this winter with the worst air pollution ever recorded outside of a life ending Volcanic Global Sulfuric Gas eruption event...

Fortunately for Russia they have most of Siberia to buffer the pollution from reaching the western population centers past the Urals...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57564051/nasa-releases-images-of-beijing-air-pollution/

Beijing and the surrounding area have been grappling with record-breaking levels of air pollution in recent days. PM2.5 measurements are taken on a scale from 0 to 500. Over the weekend of Jan 12-13, Beijing saw levels over 700.

By Monday, levels had declined to about 350 micrograms on the Beijing government scale -- down from its peak but still way above the level of 25 considered safe by the World Health Organization.

PM2.5 are tiny particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size, or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair. They can penetrate deep into the lungs, and measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

The Beijing Shijitan Hospital received 20 percent more patients than usual at its respiratory health department, Dr. Huang Aiben said. Most patients were coughing and sought treatment for chronic bronchitis, asthma and other respiratory illnesses, Huang said.

"Because these dust particles are relatively fine, they can be directly absorbed by the lung's tiny air sacs. The airway's ability to block the fine dust is relatively weak and so bacteria and viruses carried by the dust can directly enter the airway," Huang said.