CORPOATE LEADERSHIP AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

“RECENT TRANSFORMATION IN CHINA’S ECONOMIC,

SOCIAL AND EDUCATION POLICIES FOR ROMOTING
INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY”

11/9/2019

SUBMITTED TO: SIR. ESSA KHAN

SUBMITTED BY:

MAYEDA RAZI (ENROLLMENT# 02-321192-023)

SIDRA MOIN (ENROLLMENT#02-321192-010)

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: ................................................................................................................................... 3
CHANGES IN CHINA’S NATIONAL STRATEGIES ........................................................................ 3
EXPANDING INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (S&T) TO OTHER
DOMAINS .............................................................................................................................. 4
MAJOR TRENDS IN CHINESE INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY POLICIES .................................... 5
POLICIES FOR PROMOTING CREATIVITY ................................................................................. 5
1. Nascent Creativity Education............................................................................................................ 5
2. Developing Creativity Education Policy........................................................................................... 5
Recent Transformations in Creativity Education Policies: ....................................................................... 5
CRITICAL ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................ 6
(PROS and CONS)................................................................................................................... 6
PROS: ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
INDIGENOUS INNOVATION AND MAKING CHINA AN INNOVATIVE COUNTRY ......................... 6
CONS: ....................................................................................................................................................... 7
COMPETITION POLICIES ..................................................................................................................... 7
CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 10
RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................................................................................... 11
REFERENCES: ....................................................................................................................... 12
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RECENT TRANSFORMATION IN CHINA’S ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND

EDUCATION POLICIES FOR ROMOTING INNOVATION AND
CREATIVITY

INTRODUCTION:
“China is at the point where the country realizes it needs to build more innovation into the
educational system because China's moving from a largely manufacturing economy to a tech-
orientated economy," Field said.

Chinese education has undergone various reforms in order to adapt to the challenges that are
perceived to emanate from the knowledge economy. We first identify and describe the role of
innovation and creativity in economic and social development policies over the past 20 years,
then analyze how the call for enhanced Chinese innovation and creativity was actualized in
corresponding education policies. The article concludes with an analysis of issues surrounding
Chinese education policy toward creativity and several directions for future research in this area.

Central to this transformation is the concept of ‘innovation’, which is to guide the country on its
path from a production economy to a knowledge economy. Chinese policymakers have been
targeting the higher education sector both as a motor for innovation and as a realm to be
innovated.

CHANGES IN CHINA’S NATIONAL STRATEGIES

From the time period 198-1990 China was doing in its best in different sectors such as economic,
political, cultural, and educational realms but Innovation and creativity were not widely used
as strategic terminologies in the most important official documents. Because in the report to the
14th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) held in October 1992, former
President Jiang Zemin only mentioned the word “innovation” twice, by which he meant to
“assimilate advanced technologies from abroad and improve upon them.

In the year 1995 the strategy of revitalizing China through science, technology, and education
was proposed. It was believed that

“Science and technology are the chief productive forces”

Changes in terminologies were introduced in the year 1995 because of the increasing pressures
of global competition and China wants to maintain sustainable economic growth and in order to
secure higher employment innovation was needed at that time to compete with the changing
environment.
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EXPANDING INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY IN SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY (S&T) TO OTHER DOMAINS

Every 5 years, Chinese policy toward creativity was emphasized within a broader range of
domains and fields. Session of the CPC National Congress

5 Year Plan Keywords related to innovation and creativity

1991–1995 Innovation, creativity
1996–2000 Innovation, creativity, creative ability
2001–2005 Innovation, creativity, creative ability, spirit of creativity,
independent innovation, theory innovation, knowledge
innovation, technology innovation, institutional
innovation, innovative enterprise, national innovation
system
2006–2010 Innovation, creativity, creative ability, spirit of creativity,
independent innovation, theory innovation, technology
innovation, institutional innovation, innovative
enterprise, original innovation, integrated innovation,
innovation through reverse engineering, innovation base,
innovative country, awareness of creativity, culture
innovation, invention
2011–2015 Innovation, creativity, creative ability, spirit of creativity,
independent innovation, theory innovation, knowledge
innovation, technology innovation, institutional
innovation, innovative enterprise, original innovation,
integrated innovation, innovation through reverse
engineering, innovation base, innovative country,
awareness of creativity culture innovation, invention,
creative talent, innovative city, regional innovation
platform, regional innovation center, strategic alliance
for innovation, innovation team, creative thinking, global
innovation system

Increasing the emphasis on the role of innovation and creativity in China’s reform and
development this is reflected, at least partially, by the exponential growth in the frequency of the
relevant keywords.
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MAJOR TRENDS IN CHINESE INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY

POLICIES
Four main trends in China’s strategies and policies on innovation and creativity:

 From ignoring to highlighting innovation.

 From adaptation and renovation to indigenous innovation.
 From emphasizing innovation in technology to emphasizing creative talent and creative
persons.
 From individual innovation to collaborative innovation.

POLICIES FOR PROMOTING CREATIVITY

1. Nascent Creativity Education:

 Set creativity development as an educational goal

 Implement the Project for High-end Creative Talents
 Reform instructional models to activate students’ creative thinking
 Adjust assessment systems to give priority to creative students

2. Developing Creativity Education Policy:

 Stipulate creativity education in the Compulsory Education Law
 Expand creativity education projects in higher education
 Strengthen academic research on creativity and innovation

Recent Transformations in Creativity Education Policies:

 Strengthen collaborative innovation in higher education
 Specify instructional strategies for creativity education
 Link secondary education with higher education to cultivate creative talents
 Highlight creativity in curriculum frameworks
 Strengthen innovation/creativity-oriented assessments
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CRITICAL ANALYSIS

(PROS and CONS)

PROS:

INDIGENOUS INNOVATION AND MAKING CHINA AN INNOVATIVE

COUNTRY
“China's economy is shifting from high-speed growth to high-quality development. It needs to
rely on deeper reform, higher level opening up and more integrated and efficient innovation to
boost productivity and build a modern economic system. The joint research has yielded a series
of important results, which are valuable for China to cultivate new growth drivers and promote a
new round of reform and opening up,” said Jiantang Ma, Party Secretary and Vice President
(Minister in charge), Development Research Center of the State Council, China.

“The report makes clear that investing in people, removing remaining distortions in the economy
and reducing market barriers to competition will be critical as China works to boost its
innovation capabilities”, said Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and
the Pacific.

China is closing the global innovation gap with the US. Fast, very fast.

China’s innovation capabilities are evident in several areas, according to the report, “like global
R&D by its companies, high-tech imports, the quality of its publications, and tertiary enrolment.
Most notably, China is now ranking 1st and second in the world in R&D expenditures and the
number of researchers, patents, and publications.

China presents an impressive example for other middle-income countries to follow as they seek
to join the echelons of high-income economies,” the report continues. “With this success in
mind, China’s attention is now turning to the quality and impact of innovation.

Chinese Internet giants Alibaba and Tencent “have grown to rival their American counterparts –
Amazon and Facebook. However, in terms of innovation, China has mixed experience – they
have achieved some successes with military-oriented technologies.

China’s leadership sees innovation as essential for the country to continue its economic
growth, maintain political stability, support advanced military capabilities, and retain its
global trade and geopolitical power.
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China’s economic growth largely relies on material inputs and its competitive edge is to a
great extent based on cheap labor, cheap water and land resources, and expensive
environmental pollution,

China also has a huge talent pool. Enormous resources are being poured into graduating
engineers and scientists, and given the immense population base, this is an effort that in
sheer numbers can equal the combined output of many of China’s foreign competitors.

China’s large domestic market is both an incentive to indigenous production and a

magnet for foreign direct investment. Indeed, it is a market that a global company cannot
afford to ignore. China hopes to learn much from these foreign companies, enabling it to
leapfrog the painful earlier steps in innovation that were required of the technology -donor
companies. The fact that the Chinese market is growing increasingly sophisticated also
helps attract higher-end foreign investment.

CONS:

COMPETITION POLICIES
China has proposed, but not yet implemented, an Anti-Monopoly Law intended to foster
innovation. Where they exist, competition laws have served various purposes. In the
United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany, the primary stated goal of
such laws is to protect consumers. In other places, economic development, industrial
policy, or social objectives may be the primary policy drivers. In Chin a, there is clearly a
concern by top-level policymakers that an imbalance between China’s indigenous
companies’ portfolio of intellectual property and those of its trading partners’ companies
is highly problematic.

THE ONLY THING THAT IS SURE ABOUT CHINA IS THAT WHATEVER IS TRUE
TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT IN A YEAR, AND PERHAPS UNRECOGNIZABLE IN
FIVE YEARS.

China also faces a number of pressing workforce issues. In the rest of the world —
particularly in the United States, Europe, and Japan, but also in India and other nations in
competition with China—the huge number of Chinese students receiving engineering
degrees annually is causing concern. But a number of recent studies have found
comparisons between China and, in particular, the United States, to be misl eading.

A key impediment to accelerating innovation is the inadequate protection of intellectual

property. This exists, in part, because there is relatively little history or culture of
protecting intellectual property rights and only a recent history of private property. One
result is that China’s share of world patents is extremely low, and Chinese officials report
that some 99% of Chinese companies own no patents. Officials further acknowledge that
the quality of many Chinese patents is poor. This situation may be changing. The State
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Intellectual Property Office has provided figures on shares of Chinese patents that do
show an improvement.

Forcing technology transfer has its costs. Because of deficiencies in the protection of
intellectual property rights, foreign investors withhold core technologies as well as
cutting-edge technologies, thus limiting technology transfer to the more routine
technologies. There also are reports of companies holding back key process and product
components because of concern about intellectual property rights. Chinese planners are
well aware of these problems, and such awareness is apparently spurring their increased
emphasis on fostering indigenous invention.
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CONCLUSION

The future path of Chinese education can of course not be predicted. More recent policy
decisions suggest that the pendulum may swing back towards greater equality and inclusion in
education. ‘Innovation’ could turn out to become a key concept in this re-orientation, through a
strategic shift in the term’s meaning. Such a strategic move may in fact be used to reconcile the
contradictions that have been characterizing the development of Chinese education, namely the
contradictions between excellence and equality, or exclusivity and inclusion—while not
jeopardizing the government monopoly of ideological control. The success of this path will
depend on, firstly, whether China’s leadership will continue its previously successful approach of
grassroots experimentation; and secondly, whether it will be able to put an end to corruption
within a legal rather than an autocratic framework.

Basic education is the foundational project for the rejuvenation through science and education,
and plays an overarching, infrastructural and leading role in improving the quality of Chinese
citizenry, nurturing all kinds of talent at all levels, and fostering the socialist construction of
modernization. To properly prioritize educational development ahead of time, basic education
must be placed as the first priority and as the core area for infrastructural construction and
educational development, which shall be solidly ensured.
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RECOMMENDATIONS

The Chinese education system has a great reputation, but it is also considered one of the most
challenging and competitive ones in the world. Although these Chinese policies making their
students really smart and competitive but according to the research n one side they have some
skills that differentiate them from rest of the world students’ at the same time they lack in some
areas which are also needed I would like to mention few of their strength and weaknesses they
work hard, think deeply, kind, avoid arguments, persistent, good at memorizing, handle negative
feedback well their weaknesses include; poor communications, lack a clear goal purpose,
struggle to come up with their own ideas, lack problem solving skills, reluctant to ask questions,
tend to copy others’ ideas. Students who are from different parts the world have strengths like
they ask questions, confident and independent thinkers. If some enlightened country was able
to combine the best of both of these worlds, it would have the perfect education system.
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REFERENCES:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20020317.2018.1535732

http://www.most.gov.cn/eng/pressroom/200608/t20060829_35696.htm

https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-education-modernization-policy-impact-foreign-
investors/

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201908/09/WS5d4d0133a310cf3e35564d35.html

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10611932.2017.1330992