China has become a global manufacturing superpower, and U.S. election-year rhetoric presupposes that China’s economic might knows no boundaries, and that it poses a threat to America. But doubts persist about the nation’s ability to ever become an innovation superpower. Will China succeed at fostering creative incubators on par with Silicon Valley and America’s great research universities? And, contrary to the zero-sum nature of political rhetoric, should Americans root for China’s innovators?

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