Mind bending experiment in China

This article from MIT Technology Review discusses the Great Chinese experiment of instituting the scientific mindset onto its research community in a top-down manner. Much of the funding is mandated by the bureaucrats in the Communist party. Big brother is always watching what the scientists say to foreigners. And cultivating the ethos, the discipline of science, faces challenges from two deep-rooted cultural problems: the Confucian problem and the plagiarism problem. Harmony, consensus and respect for authority or elders, broadly the Confucian mindset, goes against the most fundamental aspect of modern science where the senior-most professor can be challenged by the youngest of students. The other problem is the complete ignorance or disrespect of intellectual property rights, trademarks and the stealing or the widespread practice of incorporating ideas without attribution.

This article from Newsweek talks about Chinese industrial and governmental espionage (including some in India) in its drive to acquire high-technology at any cost.

Goes to show that you can beg, borrow or steal, but none of it can help you create mind bending miracles, like inculcating the spirit of scientific enquiry. (What are they going to think of next? Introducing democracy by decree?)