The metaphor is too obvious for someone else not to have also thought of it. There were a rash of news stories a few weeks back about the numerous fake Apple stores popping up in China, and the question is this: Can China, with its present government and business structure, ever turn out a company like Apple? One that’s innovative and leads the market?

It’s obviously a generalization, but China seems more like Microsoft Nation, appropriating ideas and managing them with brutal efficiency. And that can certainly be very successful for a long time, but can that success be sustained without the fuel of original inventions? Perhaps that nation is about to file a huge number of patents, and I just know nothing about it. But for all its many strengths, China doesn’t seemed to be positioned to nurture free-thinking entrepreneurs.•