A Chinese company now manufactures stainless steel tip cases for ballpoint pens

I don't really think "innovation" can be defined as replicating manufacturing processes developed 100 years ago. This is simply playing catch up in terms of manufacturing processes and quality control.

So what this is saying is that the government of China gives money to fund the development of very specific industries which in reality could count as a subsidy under WTO rules. Yet, they want free access to our markets, but close off theirs? Something seems wrong with this.

It sounds to me like the time and energy it took to develop this pen tip could have been better spent elsewhere. Rather than highlighting Chinese innovation, for me this highlights an overly politicized Chinese economy that puts independence from foreigners over efficiency and specialization. I guess you could possible say the same thing about the US these days though.

The west biggest mistake - thinking that you could outsource the bottom layers of the value pyramid and there won&#x27;t be local layers forming on top of them.<p>And when china achieve scale on something with good quality - game over man, game over.