OT - Clean energy
The chinese are way ahead
reading comprehension is vastly under-appreciated even though the NYT writer does have some problems with English grammar.
Note the article says "China vaulted past competitors ... to become the world’s largest maker ..."
innovation and the high margin ends of nearly any business are not the forte of institutions in the PRC. Conversely, they dominate the low margin, mass production share of many markets.
I'd bet that most of the research and development innovation occurs in the USA or through funding by US institutions (I include funding from entities like GE and XOM as well as the federal gov't) although, in many, if not most cases the scientists and engineers are not US citizens and the funding is often not spent in the US. Unfortunately, for those funding entities, retention and protection of IP is a problem - particularly with respect to the PRC. The profligate lack of respect for IP in the PRC is one of the enabling factors in their dominance of cheap manufacturing.
