Many continue to think that China’s everlasting growth-phenomenon is only still possible because of the sheer size and scale of a surplus labor force and cheaply sold and produced items and services (which usually means outputs are imitation-driven and, for the most part, bad-quality).  Such a generalization is a true cop-out.  Lets try to consider that perhaps businesses in China have no choice but to innovate, bump-up quality standards and make business practices generally more sustainable.  In fact this has been the dominant aim of the private sector in China for several years already.  They’re on their way, but why?  Sure, Japan sufficed on imitation for nearly 50 years before it began to think and do creatively but that was in a time-space of history that moved several mocks slower - in other words, there was time for improving at-pace and space for error in those days.  Not today.  China knows this and is making some noteworthy efforts to transform both in the way things are done domestically as well in the way the China-made image is projected on and perceived in the global arena.

The government for one is driving forward incentives for domestic and foreign businesses to innovate and embrace sustainable practices by offering preferential policies (of finance & tax and eased restrictions on investment and operations for businesses in high-priority sectors and for those practicing in encouraged in-land regions).  Under the 11th 5 Year Plan (2006-2010) for example, there are tons of commitments to furthering innovation. At the provincial and local level, some 50 Chinese cities, municipalities and special economic zones (SEZs) prioritized innovation by aiming to build more R&D centers - to help in the advancement of technology and human capital.  They also vowed to encourage businesses to improve their practices in terms of impacts on the environment and local communities by giving tax breaks and other favorable incentives to those that adopt the use of upgraded technology and clean energy and those that adopt community-contribution projects (such as helping finance tuition for local youth to attend technical schools or assign company employees to volunteer at local health clinics).  It will still take a considerable amount of time before Chinese businesses can compete with foreign counterparts (including Indian firms) in providing innovative products or services, but with more government incentives and assistance from MNCs and multilateral, international institutions, China is well on its way to adopting a new image and practice for itself, an effort to truly become creative.  

PS: the Created in China Industry Alliance (CCIA), an organization promoting innovation projects, provides notable insight on ‘Created in China’, their website is currently only available in Chinese at: www.ccia.cc but information in English can be found at: http://www.vcwi.nl/index.php/content/view/66/57/lang,en/ Have a look, its a neat organization!

India put up a memorial hall last month to honor Xuan Zang, the Chinese Monk who traveled to India in 627 A.D., who stayed for 13 years to teach and study Buddhism and later brought the philosophy back and further introduced it to Tang Dynasty China some 1,300 years ago.  The site of the commemoration, Nalanda in northern Indian state of Bihar, is an ancient Buddhist monetary (and now a university for Buddhist studies) and center where some of the earliest Buddhist philosophers are said to have taught thousands of disciples in fields of mathematics, astronomy, medicine and literature.  In China, India and Buddhism was commemorated in the 1st century A.D., when the Eastern Han Dynasty Emperor - said to be an avid follower of Buddhism - built the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, central Henan Province for two Indian monks and the white horse that that lead them and carried some of the first Buddhist scriptures from India to China. 

450,000 is an awfully small number compared to the respective populations of the world’s two largest countries but that’s how many Chinese and Indians visited each other’s countries last year.  A dismal reflection on the interest they show in each other’s cultures - only 629,947 Indian tourists visited China in 2005 and a whopping 46,805 Chinese visited India that year according to each country’s national tourism bureaus.  Not the friendliest of neighbors I’d say.  If you live in China and you’re bringing visitors to see the Great Wall in the north or to Sun Yatsen’s temple in Nanjing, chances are, you’ll notice a few Indian tourists taking snaps here and there but if you’re at the Taj Mahal or on the beaches in Goa, to find a Chinese tourist is like a needle in a haystack.  Either way, the scenario is said to make a turn for the better starting this year as the two country’s governments signed-into an action plan last month to promote tourism through the launch of the China-India Tourism Friendship Year. The plan is to cooperate on promoting cultural exchanges in education (the Chinese government promised to invite 500 young Indians to visit China between 2007 and 2012), tourism, religion (Buddhism continues to be the major draw for Chinese tourists to India; India’s tourism bureau has launched an advertising campaign called ‘Walk with Buddha’), media & sports and both countries promised to establish national tourism offices in each others countries by 2008.  India must realize that it must become much more proactive in building its image; the tourism and culture Ministry is said to be aggressively promoting India by printing and distributing tourism literature in Chinese language and launching a Chinese version of the ‘Incredible India’ website this year… It’s early yet, lets see how things develop.