Transforming from imitators to innovators

E-commerce and e-payment, two of the "four new inventions of China", reached a new peak this year as the Singles Day sales on Nov 11 reached 253.97 billion yuan ($38.2 billion). China's "new inventions" can be more accurately described as "innovations", because there have been similar inventions in foreign countries before.

E-commerce emerged in the United States in the 1990s, but Amazon and other e-companies didn't develop as fast as their Chinese counterparts such as Alibaba and jd.com.

And e-payment, for example, through PayPal was founded in the US in 1998, five years before its Chinese imitator Alipay.