Knowledge wants to be free. Adam Smith considered IP laws to be an unnecessary evil. The Chinese are just being good capitalists. American Superconductor nearly went bankrupt because they couldn't compete on a level playing field.
Innovation is great but it's mostly a buzzword to describe the aformentioned research in commercial areas
Which makes perfect sense when you consider the size of the private economy versus the share of government spending that could reasonably go to R&D (versus entitlements, military, infrastructure, etc).
Private corporations are around ~$400 billion of the ~$550 billion per year spent in the US on R&D.
The government R&D figure as a share is higher in the EU than in the US, but not dramatically so. The private sector is simply too large by comparison and can focus its resources more narrowly on things like R&D than what a government could be expected to.
The speech you are quoting also contains “information wants to be expensive” remember. It’s worth digging out the full text and reading it.
Research isn't going to pay for itself just magically.