Honoring the best?

Beijing is going about its quest to boost innovation all wrong. 

On Friday, the Party's Central Committee and the State Council unveiled the inaugural "National Engineer Awards," recognizing 81 engineers and 50 engineering teams from various companies and research laboratories for their outstanding contributions to the field. 

In a congratulatory note to the awardees, Xi Jinping said the best engineers should:

• “Serve the nation through science and technology…and dare to make breakthroughs in key core technologies.”

Unsurprisingly, awardees hailed from strategic sectors, including:

• Aerospace
• High-speed railway
• 5G telecommunications
• Semiconductors

The awards were heavily skewed towards state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and quasi-government institutions.

• Only a handful of private companies – such as CATL and BYD – made the list.

Get smart: The private sector is the main source of innovation. 

• Not giving them the recognition they deserve defeats the purpose of the awards – which is to encourage innovation.