Harvey Dzodin, nonresident researcher for the Center for China and Globalization.

In my view, China is fast moving from its copycat phase to one of a world-class inventor and innovator.

President Xi Jinping said that "China will continue to forge global partnerships, expand the common interests with other countries...and push for an economic globalization that is more open and inclusive.” At the same time, Vice-Premier Wang Yang talked about the sea change in China's economy going forward that "will prioritize quality and efficiency, which will be driven by innovation and efficiency.” Read together, these quotes show that China is indeed entering a new win-win era of globalized leadership in innovation.

Admittedly, like many developing countries, China has been strongly protectionist of its nascent industries and has been strongly and rightly criticized for this by countries in the West. This is changing but is not unique to China.

Consider the case of state-of-the-art technology in the 18th century Industrial Revolution era. It is clear that Englishman John Lombe stole the secrets of Italian mass-production weaving machines, clandestinely making detailed drawings of looms in the dead of night -- a crime punishable by death -- and barely escaping this punishment.

Decades later, Samuel Slater, often called "the father of the American industrial revolution”, followed suit using his photographic memory in the heartland of the Silicon Valley of its day, the English Midlands.

Like England and the US then, China is now ramping up to the next level with Made in China, a national project to make this country self-sufficient in manufacturing with homegrown solutions and components by 2025. It is also investing billions of RMB to turn China into one of the leading industrial countries by 2049.

According to the plan, the domestic market share of Chinese suppliers for "basic core components and important basic materials" is intended to increase to 70 percent by 2025.

Main growth areas include Information technology, computerized machines, robots, energy-saving vehicles, medical devices as well as high-tech equipment for aerospace technology and maritime and rail transport.

I don't believe China is trying to claim superiority over any nation but to merely reclaim the political and technological leadership it held for more than a millennium. As witnessed by Xi's Belt and Road Initiative, which is open to all, I do believe China will partner with other nations, even the US, in win-win cooperation.

I also believe that protectionist trends at home and abroad will lessen with accelerating globalization, with China in its renewed role as a global leader and innovator.

Fernando Bensuaski, a long-time investor and advisor in China. He is currently CFO of Chenco Holding, a premier cross-Pacific real estate investment firm.

The answer is simple: China is still in the very early stages of developing a society that is creative and innovative. The reasons are complex and discussed below.

Creativity and innovation are not the same thing, even though creativity may lead to innovation.

Creativity is the unleashing of one's flow of ideas that leads to the creation of something valuable, whether it is a painting, a musical or a technological breakthrough.

Innovation is the process of translating an idea or invention into goods or services that create value for which customers will pay. Creativity should be uncontrolled and unrestrained, while innovation needs to take into consideration the market and the eventual users.

A beautiful example of unrestrained creativity that leads to innovation and profits is Apple Inc, which, through creativity and innovation, has far greater margins than all of its peers, including Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei. As a matter of fact, although the iPhone has only a 14 to 16 percent global market share of units sold, it enjoys 91 percent of the profits in the entire smartphone sector, according to a report by CNBC from Nov 23, 2016.

China has several creative and innovative icons -- the likes of Tencent, Alibaba and China Railway. However, a few icons do not a creative and innovative society make.

The 2016 Global Innovation Index ranked China 25th, despite enjoying the world's second largest R&D budget. Forbes' Most Innovative Companies in 2017 listed, among the top 20, 14 US companies and one in China, which was a Sino-American joint venture.

The hoped-for burst in Chinese innovation has been constrained by three factors.

First, by showering state-owned enterprises and "state-favored”private firms with soft money and protecting them from market discipline, the state removes any incentive for them to upgrade their technological capacity, as reported by The Economist in July 2016.

Second, by failing to reform its educational system, China is discouraging disruptive innovation and risk-taking, without which innovation occurs only in a narrow, safe segment.

Third, by failing to seriously and impartially protect intellectual property rights, China is pushing inventors offshore.

China has become a strong innovator in areas such as consumer electronics and construction equipment. Yet in others — creating new drugs or designing automobile and airplane engines — the country still lags. That's true even though every year it spends more than $240 billion on research (second only to the United States), turns out close to 30,000 PhDs in science and engineering annually, and leads the world in patent applications (more than 400,000 in 2016), based on data from the State Council Information Office. Furthermore, China is benefitting from an influx of foreign R&D dollars, and currently has over 1,500 R&D centers funded by the US and European companies.

Global leaders are of the opinion that, while it is possible for China to change from an "innovation sponge” -- absorbing and adapting existing technology from around the world -- into a global innovation leader, it cannot happen without deep reform in the educational system and intellectual property rights.

US Innovation has benefitted enormously from a constant inflow of immigrants with different thoughts and different thinking processes. From Pfizer, P&G and Colgate to Intel, Google, Yahoo, Qualcomm and Tesla – all were founded by immigrants. The US has also benefitted from fabulous research universities and a close cooperation between such universities and both industry and the military. This has led to a leadership in commercialization that is unequalled.

China should also look at Germany, where innovation has been admirable. The country boasts the world's largest concentration of middle-market companies that are global leaders in their subsectors, thanks to impeccable and continuing incremental innovation.

There seems to be a prevalent belief around China -- even in remote, poor areas like Gansu and Qinhai -- that if the government encourages the development of a business park and puts a sign that reads "Creative Center” at the entrance, creativity (and, consequently, innovation) will follow. It will not.

China will not become a leading innovative country until intellectual Property is truly protected, allocation of research funding does not favor moribund SOEs, and the educational system is changed to acknowledge that failure is a step to success and that the students' minds are free to explore.

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