China's transformation into an innovative design powerhouse

On January 15th, the website of the Spanish newspaper "El Mundo" published a report titled "How China Became a Design Power that Dominates the World". The translation of the report is as follows:

The A 'Design Award, which has global influence, aims to recognize outstanding design works in industrial, graphic, digital and other fields. The jury is organized in Italy and awards different levels of recognition to worthy designs in dozens of categories

The A 'Design Award has also launched a' World Design Ranking Chart ', which functions like an Olympic medal table and aims to track the awards received by different countries and regions. China consistently leads the medal table year after year. In 2024, 5138 Chinese designs won awards, earning China 17908 points. The United States, ranked second, received 1599 awards and 5517 points, followed closely by Japan and Italy

How to explain China's dominant position? Isn't China seen as a country that provides cheap "knockoff" products

In fact, China not only has strong industrial strength, but also performs well in competitions related to luxury goods and art

Spanish expert on China, Julio Rios, said: "China has been investing a lot of resources in innovation and its dissemination for many years because it needs to showcase its new global position. Innovation gives people the impression of openness and is a form of soft power, which is also what China needs." Spanish sinologist Eva Pereira further elaborated on this viewpoint: "China's investment in innovation is impressive in quantity, long-term, part of national strategy, and has been very effective so far. China has the ability to concentrate a large amount of resources on several main goals. It has a large-scale enterprise group, and its investment ability is unimaginable in Europe; in addition, the country will also provide relevant support. This means they can invest heavily in innovation over the long term Experts point out that there are two key moments in cultivating creativity, one is imitation and the other is innovation, and they are interrelated. Most painters start with imitation before starting their own creations. For example, Luckin Coffee was once seen as a replica of Starbucks, while Xiaomi was seen as imitating Apple. However, in the past few years, both brands have rapidly developed and are no longer simply replicas

About 15 years ago, China was insignificant in automobile exports, but now it has become a major country that can provide high-quality car models at affordable prices. The strategic innovation areas chosen by China include improving energy efficiency, chips and their applications in automobiles, as well as the application of artificial intelligence in industries and other fields