Chen wenling: Innovation Must Be Based on Global Cooperation

The history of human civilization is a history of exploration and innovation. Whenever subversive innovation occurs, the fate of the world and humanity will change accordingly. Whether it is the steam revolution, the power revolution, or the Internet revolution, the technology involved is not in the possession of one country but went through the process of sharing, transfer, transformation and eventually become a technological revolution spreading the world.

Today, the fourth scientific and technological revolution is coming, which will not only promote the industrial revolution but also restructure economic globalization. This is a process during which innovation has become a method of production, lifestyle and survival, a process in which mankind begins to enjoy the fruits of inventions together.

Innovation means sharing and transformation. It also implies that new economies, kinetic energy and technologies have entered into a market with widespread application. Possible changes will occur in industrial format, business model and human interactions. The biggest role of innovation is to bring more happiness to mankind, bring greater development to the world and bring new growth engines to economies. Some people do not really understand the essence of innovation. They simply believe that the one who has an advantage in innovation should control the technology exclusively and no one else should be allowed to use it. Undoubtedly, this kind of mindset will hinder global innovation.

At present, the Internet has been widely used around the world, a new generation of information technology is developing rapidly, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and quantum computing are being shared, transformed and applied faster than ever. If we refuse to share innovation, we will lose the possibility of climbing the pinnacle of technology. No matter how advanced technology is, it cannot be transformed into part of the industrial chain if we do not share it with others. Gradually, it will become outdated.

From the perspective of the global innovation chain, the United States has advantages in original and cutting-edge innovation. However, China has the largest application market and more business model innovations. As the two largest sources of innovation, the United States and China are highly complementary as the US focuses on basic research and China focuses on applied research. They should work together to promote the formation of a complete innovation industry chain. The different links of the industrial chain are interdependent and can not be separated, otherwise the entire industry will be paralyzed.

The United States added Chinese companies such as Huawei in the “entity list”, which caused great losses to Chinese companies. Nevertheless, American companies also experienced sharp declines in profits, reduction of staff, and even closure because their core components could not be supplied to the Chinese market and cannot become an effective part of the global industrial chain.

Our dream is to make the world a better place and the essence of innovation is to share with others about the lasts development and progress. The zero-sum game will only bring confusion to the economy, trade, technology, financial markets and endanger people’s lives. In order to promote global innovation and restore vitality to world economic development, countries should reach a consensus on sharing innovation and have mutual trust. Innovation, especially disruptive innovation, must be shared by mankind.

Of course, innovation must be rule-based and we must recognize and respect these rules. For example, innovation requires transformation, sharing and scale. Moreover, innovation requires investment and trial and error because many disruptive technologies only succeeded after countless failures. Innovation is gradual progress and needs numerous practices. A sound market mechanism is important for innovation and we should not allocate resources through administrative means. We can only create a healthy global industrial chain when supply and demand match each other.