.. Finally, China brings an element to the table that few other nations can match: a sufficiently large domestic market such that it can actually create its own standards for technology — and make them stick. Traditionally, Europe, Japan and the United States have always created technology standards — how television or cell phone signals are broadcast, for example, or the formats for CDs and DVDs. But China is now developing its own standards for technologies such as digitized video and next-generation cell phones. Foreign manufacturers will have to adopt those standards if they wish to sell to the Chinese. Sooner or later, one of those home-grown standards may go international, giving Chinese companies even more power.

It’s hard to spend much time among the enthusiastic entrepreneurs at Zhongguancun and Tsinghua without worrying about how the U.S. will measure up in years to come. While the number of U.S. science and engineering graduates declines, year after year, China’s numbers are surging. China already graduates more English-speaking electrical engineers than does the U.S. Last month the U.S. came in 17th in an annual international collegiate programming contest; a team from a Shanghai university came in first. And U.S. middle school math and science scores continue to lag behind those of other developed nations — even as school boards debate how to teach evolution.