Why China Will not Supplant the US as the Tech Capital of the World

China to be the next Tech Capital of the World? There are people out there who think that China will be the Tech capital of the World. Perhaps even surpassing the U.S within the next ten years. I politely disagree. The Chinese government might be investing government funds in space flight, solar panels, levitating trains, and they might have a large tech manufacturing base. How ever these factors don’t make China a great tech superpower. There are other factors that remain. Let’s begin with the Chinese currency which is not allowed to freely float against other nations. Rather China insists on basing its currency on a basket  of currency's with heavy exposure to the dollar. Then there’s fact that Chinese society is still a closed society. Meaning that people cannot open express what they think or feel in public without persecution. In the market place there no openness as to which companies are actually making money without heavy investments from the state. The market needs to know that there is a free and open flow of information about companies, and even about the state in order to make the proper investments to meet the needs and demands of Chinese society. But there is none of that. Rather the Chinese government seeks to supplant the market, and make the investments as to which technologies and industries are going to prosper. This is in contrast to the market place in the U.S. The Chinese government cannot possibly understand the needs and wants of its people that an open market would be better able to respond to. Thus in order to be a truly great leader of Tech it needs to be the one thing that it refuses to be, an open society. I was in Egypt a few years ago, and my wife and I were astounded by how modern tech coexisted with primitive ways of living. We saw satellite dishes on top of clay brick houses, with a water buffalo and donkeys in the front yard. Then there were cell phones and computer cafes everywhere. Even in Cairo we saw water buffalo pulling carts through the heart of city. China might get the great tech gadgets, and have the factories. But it must still deal with the fact that for the majority of Chinese they will still rely on crude to primitive ways of living just like the Egyptians, and learn to merge the two cultures together primitive, and modern tech. I believe that the US will remain the best place to see tech succeed, and on a greater scale than you would in China.

Surfs up!....................................Eric