China’s Businesses Boom, But Its Brands Don’t

China is the world’s factory, yet other countries supply most of the designs. Chinese brands aren’t flowing along with the “Made in China” labels on products. “A key problem for Chinese businesses is a comparative lack of legal protection,” explains Rob Gifford for NPR. For China to move toward innovation, with corporate research and development, it must develop intellectual property rights to protect entrepreneurs and innovators, education that challenges conventional points of view, environmental protections, social protections including health care and pensions, and press freedoms so investors can trust business, Gifford quotes a Shanghai-based trade consultant. Companies and workers lacking security have little motivation to establish operations for the long term; cheap knockoffs could put them out of business any time. The article suggests that China could both develop the reforms and keep its one-party system, but would do well to listen to the cautionary advice: Revolutionary innovations rarely come to those who cannot challenge authority. – YaleGlobal