L’INÉGAL DÉVELOPPEMENT INDUSTRIEL DE LA CHINE : CAPACITÉS D’INNOVATION ET COEXISTENCE DE DIFFÉRENTS MODES D’APPRENTISSAGE TECHNOLOGIQUE

Based on the example of the automobile and electronics sector in China, the article examines the technological learning of companies in China and the way it is influenced by industrial policy. Companies have consolidated their production capacity and technological learning but are rarely in the position to develop an innovation capability. The article shows the diversity of enterprises and identifies two opposing modes of development, either based on technological transfers of foreign technologies mainly through state-owned enterprises, or based on assimilation and learning of technologies acquired through the clients in private or foreign-owned companies or other new enterprises, of a rather small size. The latter are less favoured by official policies and have difficulties in obtaining the advantages that may have been available through the national innovation system (training, higher education, research, technical centres, funding). This separation of the innovation system promoted by the government and the industrial system that was created through technological learning is, in the authors’ opinion, the main reason for a low innovation capability of the Chinese industry. The co-existence of these two different modes is a characteristic feature of China and explains why China does not follow the “imitation to innovation” path experiences by South Korea and Japan.