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When research scientists in China look at the success of American tech firms, they often note one source for their creativity: a generous allowance for failure. They admire the freedom granted in labs to make mistakes, something that is difficult in a society like China that prizes conformity and quick profits. Imagine the shock then last Sunday when a former minister for industry and information technology, Miao Wei, admitted that China is failing in its goal of becoming a global leader in inventing new technologies within this decade.

“It will take at least 30 years to achieve the goal of becoming a manufacturing great power,” he said, according to state media reports.

While China has been the world’s biggest manufacturer since 2010, its industries remain far behind countries such as Germany and South Korea in scientific innovation, Mr. Miao said. It needs to “foster talent” in new ways, he added.

His words echoed those of other Communist Party leaders in high-level meetings in recent days setting forth the next five-year economic plan. Premier Li Keqiang promised increased support for “sources of innovation,” or the creativity that drives “breakthroughs” in key fields, especially computer chips. Simply throwing more money into research and development or seeking rapid economic growth is no longer enough.

A recent article in the official China Daily explained the challenge: “It is not uncommon for researchers to be distracted from their work by the many unnecessary and over-elaborate formalities of the current system, and why they are so keen to publish as many papers as possible and apply for as many patents as possible in a short time, rather than spend years ‘sitting on cold stools’ dedicating themselves to fundamental research that might produce no findings or returns in the end.”

Only if researchers “are emancipated from the shackles” of proving the value of their work can they “be emboldened to act as trailblazers,” the article added.

Beijing has even set up the Institute of Chinese Scientific Culture to study the factors that promote inventiveness. It also built a center for mathematical research designed to allow researchers “to meander, think and look for the artistry and beauty in numbers” and “to facilitate those eureka moments,” according to an official account.

China has yet to develop a “spirit of science” comparable to the scientific revolution of the West after the Enlightenment, wrote Liu Yadong, the chief editor of Science and Technology Daily, in 2018. A scientific spirit comes out of society’s values, such as the pursuit of truth and a tolerance for failure. Measuring science by its commercial returns is superficial, he stated.

The world’s most innovative societies have usually been those in which people are allowed to pursue ideas outside official norms. Many societies are still coming to terms with the idea that there are ideas yet to be discovered. Creativity “is not a stock of things that can be depleted or worn out, but an infinitely renewable resource that can be constantly improved,” notes a 2015 report called the Global Creativity Index by a group of international scholars.

As China’s authoritarian leader Xi Jinping cracks down even further on political dissent, he’s also trying to allow more freedom of thought and freedom to fail among scientific researchers. Mr. Miao’s admission of China missing its goal of becoming an innovation giant illustrates the contradiction. The problem is ripe for a breakthrough. If Chinese researchers had their way, they’d probably opt for more freedom to solve it.