There is a lot of innovation happening here. Don't get me wrong.
China took the technologies for high-speed trains from the rest of the world and ran with it. When China first received the technology, the trains were traveling at around 250 km/h; however, at this point the fastest train is ~480km/h (China has the fastest train in the world that runs on rails, as opposed to meglev, but that's because meglev sucks up energy quicker than the village whore. Were they to do the 20,000 km of high-speed rail in meglev, China would need a couple dozen nuclear power plants, just to make the trains float.) with faster speeds expected to be developed next year.
There are several large initiatives that are taking ideas for alternative energy that were rejected in the United States due to lack of support that should be coming online in the next decade.
China recently developed the fastest computer in the world. While some might say that it was using Intel based Chips, Nvidia cards, what the Chinese developed themselves was the bridge that connected all of these things together. Not only that, but since Intel is operating within the boarders of China, it means that they had to sell a good chunk of their technology to the Chinese government.
I also know that several American companies that I deal with, have moved their R&D centers to China to take advantage of the fact that your average college graduate gets paid less than your average factory worker in China.
So yes, China is starting to create some interesting technology; however, a survey could never determine something like this.
Especially the conclusions drawn from the methods employed in education are interesting. I think I recognise many of them as parts of our system as well, though perhaps these findings will also go some way towards convincing us over here to start paying a decent wage to our teachers.
We have some chinese guys to catch up to.
