Yet if the world is to rely on China to do its innovation, it will become an uncomfortable place. Chinese citizens are subject to arbitrary and authoritarian restraints that the West long ago shook off. Democracy does not exist and free speech is impossible. I repeat: the stories of innovation that I have documented in this book teach a lesson that it relies heavily on freedom. Innovation happens when ideas can meet and mate, when experiment is encouraged, when people and goods can move freely and when money can flow rapidly towards fresh concepts, when those who invest can be sure their
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