[Bob]

What, if anything has China invented?

Well, it has been a while but they have been widely credited with inventing gunpowder. :=)

[narses]

paper money too.

[central_va]

What, if anything has China invented

Chinese Restaurants

[hinckley buzzard]

What will China's "top down" path, so different from what led to Silicon Valley, bring about?

This is the great contradiction. Topdown planning takes no advantage of individual innovation or initiative. Without the intellectual and economic freedom to pursue one's own dreams and ambitions, there would have been no "Silicon Valley."