Asians are so much smarter when a country that has literally 5 times as many brains as ours can’t invent their own stuff?
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Because the CCP harshly discourages innovation, not because the Chinese people are incapable. Their idea is to create a nation of apathetic sheep. Even billionaires are not safe - Jack Ma ($142.5 billion), Alibaba founder (the Chinese Amazon counterpart), has been disappeared for some time now, many others are in prison, disappeared, shot. Anything that in the slightest is perceived by the CCP to be criticism of it is dealt with harshly and what is not criticism today could well be tomorrow. Sticking a hair out of line is to get slapped down violently.
I agree with that to at least some extent. I'd argue, however, there's something else in our cultural differences. Our religion as Christians, particularly Protestants (and Catholics exposed to enough Protestants to pick up on the same culture) has made it normal for us to expand our horizons, get deeper into our relationship with God with our own initiative, it's up to us to read the Bible on our own, etc. Likewise with the centuries of capitalism we had until the past few decades, making it a normal part of our culture to depend on our own abilities to make our lives and our loved ones' lives better.