back to article Move over Silicon Valley, the Chinese are coming

Over 40 per cent of technology leaders think that Silicon Valley will be supplanted by China as the world’s leading tech innovation hub, according to a new report from KPMG. The consultancy interviewed hundreds of tech execs from start-ups to multi-nationals across the globe and found that 44 per cent believe China will …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yawn

    Until China has research universities to rival Stanford, MIT, CMU, and Berkeley, and until they have mastery of English to communicate their ideas to the rest of the world, they can keep dreaming.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why would they want to communicate their ideas to the rest of the world?

      What's in it for them?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why would they want to communicate their ideas to the rest of the world?

        Answer: wealth and the desire to spend it still over-whelmingly resides in the West. Until consumption in China catches up, China needs the West to spend (or squander if you prefer) its money on the goods it produces. By innovating as well as designing and manufacturing, it gets more of the money.

        The days of a walled empire that rejects outsiders is gone.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why would they want to communicate their ideas to the rest of the world?

        "What's in it for them?"

        Let's say you want to start a company to develop a new operating system or a new microprocessor architecture, but you can't communicate your ideas about its new architecture because your engineers and marketing people don't speak English. I'm not talking about a "better widget", like a more efficient version of a SQL database, but rather real innovation: new designs, new paradigms, new architectures. These things don't emerge in a vacuum. They emerge in a culture of engineers and technology people who debate their design merits over time.

        Again, what are your chances of getting investors to look seriously at your company if you are not going to be able to communicate and defend your ideas in English?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Investors

          I don't think Chinese companies need to look abroad for investment. "The largest foreign holder of U.S. debt is China, which owns more about $1.2 trillion in bills, notes and bonds, according to the Treasury." So I would advise the Chinese not to get too distracted by learning foreign languages, and they should definitely not make the mistake of discriminating against their own people and companies by encouraging/forcing people to use a foreign language. Make sure it is possible to obtain a first-rate education without knowing any language other than Chinese, so that people who are not linguistically gifted aren't forced to drop out like they are in some other countries (e.g. Germany).

  2. James Anderson

    And the killer app is ?

    So starting from a base zero successful and/or original software products I am sure they can build on this.

    Rather like they became a major industrial power in the 60's thanks to "the great leap forward".

    Chinas current success is based on cheap labour, no pensions, no health care and no health and safety "red tape", plus a willingness in western governments to abandon their peoples welfare in order to make a few businesses more profits.

  3. RudolfLaRenna
    Alert

    A match made in heaven

    > However, one area where China is leading, and innovating, is cloud computing.

    I am certainly being paranoid here, but cloud computing is a perfect technology for authoritarian regimes - provided it's hosted in their country of course. I definitely see why they would put extra effort to ensure they are leaders in the field.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Doubtful, they just don't have the copyright and IP protection laws required to support start ups and new developments.

    For instance, what CPUs (a pretty good gauge of invention) have the Chinese ever invented? erm, Dragon CPU which is a MIPS rip off (which they finally officially licenced in 2007).

  5. MondoMan
    FAIL

    Reg got it wrong

    What the report actually said was that of the minority of respondents (40-something percent) who thought the world's innovation center would move away from Silicon Valley in the future, more than 40 percent thought it would move to China (or something like 20 percent overall).

    Not that these sorts of reports are worth reading...

  6. Raz

    Do you remember...

    The books from the '80s that were saying that in 10 years Japan will pass America as the leader in technology? How that happened... I am very skeptical regarding these "reports"... No one knows the future. Will there be change? Yes. What that change will be? No one knows, including these "analysts". If they had any ideas, they would be implementing them, not running statistics...

    1. Christian Berger

      Re: Do you remember...

      Hmm... look around you, name 3 TV manufacturers from Japan, then try to do the same for the US. In Europe many people have equipment designed or even built in Japan, but nothing from the US.

      Yes, Japan is fading away, but the US is long gone when it comes to technology. Even worse is that previous technology companies have turned into lifestyle companies.

      China however currently invests in education, while people in the US seem to become more and more ignorant.

      1. Raz

        Re: Do you remember...

        I would have preferred a better example, TVs are actually a domain that is stagnant. After the flat panel "revolution" that took place 5 years ago, there's really nothing new. 3D? No one seems to want that, or what is passed as 3D these days. Even than, I would argue that 98% of the TVs on the market these days are actually Chinese products, just try to find one that says "Made in Japan". Out of the total cost (for the manufacturer) of the product, the vast majority is spent in components and labor.

        I think that the forefront of technology is the software. And this is where US has the lead, even if it looks like they try to kill that too by farming it overseas.

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