the negative sides are well known for xys readers, and summarized well in the nytimes analysis.

however, there're also lots of promising signs.

1. most chinese top leaders have some training in engineering and science, few are wksn. as i saw in an interview in "science news", which said american leaders are moslty lawyers, things go much slowly.

2. the resolve, esp on tech area, is evident from central to all local governments.

3. more and bigger haiguis

4. renewable energy. china has been asking west for tech tranfer all the time and gets little feedback. still all agree that china now is a big player in this area, which many view as the most important economy contributor in this century.

5. hi speed rail. both russia and america are interested in cooperation.

6. car and aeroplane. it's true they have little appeal to west market in the near future, but how about developing nations? wouldn't they prefer cheaper and equally reliable planes?

7. stem cell therapy. china has few ethical limits, there're already a few promising results, although i am sure vast # of failures just go unreported.

china looks like taking the same road as japan in 60-70's, focusing more on tech and applied rather than basic researches. investers have little patience. it's a suitable choice for present china, maybe once we get near japan's level then we can have more resources on basic studies.

one thing very important but i believe not well addressed is patent and protection for inventors.