China’s ‘New Four Great Inventions’ Are All Technologies Stolen From Others
China’s ‘New Four Great Inventions’ Are All Technologies Stolen From Others
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In recent years, China's official media has touted high-speed rail, mobile payments, bike-sharing, and online shopping as the "new Four Great Inventions," a reference to China's historical contributions. However, a closer examination reveals that none of these so-called new inventions originated in China. They are, in fact, technologies borrowed from abroad and have merely thrived unchecked within China.
The term "China's new Four Great Inventions" originated from a survey conducted in May 2017 by Beijing Foreign Studies University. The survey asked young people from 20 countries to list the technologies they most wished to take back to their countries from China. The top four answers were high-speed rail, mobile payments, bike-sharing, and online shopping. This led media and officials to gradually propagate these as contemporary Chinese innovations.