The problem is that China actively encourages groupthink, and actively suppresses real diversity of opinion & knowledge.
Again, the problem with the author's thesis is how he defines things to suit his results. He talks about the wisdom of crowds but truth is when he used the example of locating the sub it wasn't a "crowd", it was a panel of experts in various relevant fields, an elite if you will. If that was to show the wisdom of crowds, it was a pretty poor example.