They are now on the path of leapfrogging us in critical areas.
No, I did not. Because no matter what, China has yet to be an "Originator nation".
And in most ways, Japan is barely one. Both have largely simply made items that were actually created by others. China is still not even to where Japan was 40 years ago in regards to actually designing and creating their own products. They simply copy the work of others. Or make it for them under contract.
Case in point, look at most Japanese electronics until fairly recently. Yes, they did them good, they did them cheaply, but what was ever actually "original"?
The answer, not much. The TV, the VCR, the home computer, all US inventions. They simply did some changes is all. But they did not "create" them. Probably the single largest "origination" was the CD. A further evolution of the Western Electric "Video Disk" (licensed to Pioneer as the "Laser Disk"), then simply reduced in size and the data digital instead of analog. And evolution, but not really a "creation".
They took several steps in the evolution of many products, but originated very little. Heck, even the NES started as yet another 3rd generation game system, little evolved from the Atari VCS. And the Sony Playstation was just a 5th generation console, still following the obvious path that started with the Fairchild Chanel F (or the original Magnavox Odyssey before that). It took Microsoft to show them they did not have to be beige, and lie flat on the desk like a record player.
This is the kind of stagnation that is actually common in both China and Japan, it is just the culture. Where "innovation" and "change" is actually looked down upon in general, and the next item is generally the same as the last. Japan has gotten better over the decades, and now we are actually seeing them often taking "leaps of faith", which sometimes work and sometimes do not (Nintendo Wii).
But China is not even there yet, not even close. Feel free to look at any items designed in China. They are decades behind anything designed in the US. And it is not even consumer electronics. Even their military equipment is basically the same. Still copies of old Soviet era equipment, just with a fancy paint job and new name.
And want to see all that end? Simply find a way for the US companies to return to manufacturing in other countries. Or even back home.
Trust me, I have been studying technology trends and evolution for decades. And "reverse engineer" is just another way to say "copy". And yes, China will likely do that again. But you keep missing the point.
They will never actually design and make the items that people need.
Oh, they might someday, but not for a great many decades (if ever). All they do is copy what others actually create.
Heck, just a few years ago China finally "created" their first CPU.
*drumroll*
The Zhaoxin, a licensed X86 clone. It is roughly the equivalent of a 4-5 year old AMD or Intel processor that sold for around $150. No hyper-threading, a fraction of the cache, even the cheap computers at a discount department store are better and cheaper. But they are selling like crazy, because China is starting to mandate that they should only buy domestically made products.
