Innovation starts in schools — lessons from China

In early 2025, the Chinese artificial-intelligence company DeepSeek, based in Hangzhou, unveiled DeepSeek-R1 , a high-performance large language model developed at a fraction of the cost of its Western counterparts. Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen called it “ AI’s Sputnik moment ”. Later that year, Chinese robotics firm Unitree, also based in Hangzhou, released its R1 humanoid robot, which has capabilities approaching those of much more expensive Western systems. Together, these advances have revived a global debate about how nations cultivate and secure technological leadership. The number of China’s elite scientists who have been trained abroad is falling The composition of teams at these firms is revealing. DeepSeek’s research cohort is mostly domestically trained, with many members under 30 . Unitree’s engineers are similarly young and trained mainly in China. Together, these cases suggest that cutting-edge innovation need not depend on researchers learning skills overseas and returning to their home country. A homegrown pipeline for talent is possible — but the model must be sustainable. How can countries build one strong enough to support innovation over time? The answer is to start at the earliest stages of education. …