Innovation is China's edge in development

02:45

**Editor's note: **In China today, innovation is playing an increasingly important role in development. However, its ability to innovate has been misunderstood in the West. It's really quite innovative and aware of the significance of innovation. John Milligan-Whyte, executive chairman of The America-China Partnership Foundation, shares his views on the country's innovation ambitions. Views expressed in the video are his, and not necessarily those of CGTN.

China's internal market is as large as all of Europe's market and is much larger than America's market. So with the dual cycle, China will rely more on innovation and less on traditional manufacturing and investment. So I think that the dual cycle will be a very effective strategy for China.

China is moving to an innovation economy and its ability to innovate has been misunderstood in the West. It's really quite innovative. It has a cadre of young people who are very hungry entrepreneurs. And the state leadership realizes that innovation is very important. So I think China is in a very good position.

American imports from China and the trade deficit have actually gone up under U.S. President Donald Trump rather than down. So I think that China has a very cool-headed type of leadership. It will just continue moving ahead as effectively as it has in the last 40 years.

The old school U.S.-China relation that has been maintained for a long time meant that China would never be able to compete effectively with the West. The reality is that China has four times the population of America. It's inevitable. Given the knowledge economy of the 21st century, with four times the population, four times the market is going to be leading the world economy. The only alternative is a war that destroys basically the global financial system. But it's a possibility I think is unlikely to occur.

The thing that I would add is China has a stable political system that is able to do long-term economic planning. And the Western nations don't have a stable political system and are not as able to do long-term successful economic planning. So you have a very effective system of government interacting with less effective systems of government, and that will lead to China making progress that isn't as possible in other types of government systems.

The Understanding China Conference also contributed to it

Interviewer: Yang Chuchu

Cameramen: Gao Chong

Video editing: Liu Shasha

Executive producer: Wei Wei

Supervisor: Mei Yan

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at [email protected].)