There are few American heroes in Asia these days. Steve Jobs was the great exception, widely admired precisely because he is seen as a quintessentially American self-made man. To many fans, especially in China, the late Apple chief executive is an uncomfortable reminder that their country still has a long way to go before it can produce a figure with similar accomplishments and stature.

It is not clear what exactly it takes to produce a Steve Jobs, of course. But to those Chinese who wish to see their country develop the same entrepreneurial culture there are several ingredients missing, which mostly have to do with two areas: education and finance (notwithstanding the fact that Jobs was, famously, a college drop out).

The Chinese system still suffers from an emphasis on rote learning. That stifles creativity. Answers are to be learnt, not discovered. Today’s educational system implicitly encourages widespread copying, not just in exams but in everything from mobile phones to cancer research.