[ By Liu Rui/Global Times]

China is set to become the world's leading economy - but for what?

Received wisdom holds that the Chinese economy is all about fast growth and low costs: Double-digit growth based on cheap labor used to manufacture and supply affordable goods to developed countries.

But does that reflect the nature of the Chinese economy in 2011?

It does not. Modern China is determined to become the world's leading knowledge innovator. This has been planned for decades and will inevitably start to happen - very soon.

Innovation is a Chinese tradition.

Take a look at history. For many centuries, Chinese civilization was the world's leading innovator. British sinologist Denis Twitchett (1925-2006) has estimated that, from 221 BC to 1644, China's total technological inventions accounted for about two-thirds of the world total.

Chinese inventions were not limited to papermaking, printing, gunpowder and the compass, but covered a wide range of fields including textiles, porcelain, agriculture, metallurgy and navigation.

China's innovative spirit is rooted in its cultural DNA. Throughout history, inventors were respected, rewarded and commemorated. There were policies, laws and practices devoted to promoting knowledge, education and innovation.

A fundamental Chinese philosophical concept is that mankind needs to follow the way of the universe, which is ever-changing and creative. Hence, the ultimate way of improving our society is to follow natural movements, change and innovate.

This spirit is shared by all Oriental societies that have been historically influenced by Chinese civilization.

This explains why Japan, South Korea and Singapore all rank near the top in the global innovation index.

A host of internal and external factors account for the dramatic decline of China's innovative capacity in modern times. The first half of the 20th century witnessed a series of wars in China.

China could not innovate when it was struggling to survive. A vast technological gap opened up between China and modern nations.

China's post-1949 climate took some initiatives to boost technological advance. But political misfortunes let slip the golden economic and high-tech boom that the US, Japan and the four Asian Tigers enjoyed.

When Deng Xiaoping initiated China's opening-up in 1978, he had little to offer in the global food chain other than cheap labor - education had been interrupted during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) and the population had exploded.