Rampant cheating hurts China's research ambitions

It seems everybody copies everybody here in mainland China, from research papers to foreign technology to fashions. As a national (but "unofficial") policy, it's certainly helped them "bring hundreds of millions out of poverty" over the last 30 years, but I'm not sure if it'll help them much in the future 30 years.

I remember letting a Chinese teacher of English observe one of my classes. (I'm a Westerner, teaching English in China.) When I taught the lesson, I had a selection of possible activities, sense the students' moods, and choose some of them accordingly. But a few weeks later, I went into an empty classroom just as she was walking out, and on the blackboard was what had been there when I had taught the lesson, word for word, in the exact same positions.

So I think the entrenched Chinese habit of copying everything will prevent them having the creativity needed to succeed as a nation in the next 30 years.