''Four new inventions'' () is a slogan that is propagandized by the Chinese

state media State media or government media are media outlets that are under financial and/or editorial control of the state or government, directly or indirectly. There are different types of state and government media. State-controlled or state-run media a ...

, named after the

Four Great Inventions The Four Great Inventions () are inventions from ancient China that are celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as symbols of ancient China's advanced science and technology. They are the compass, History of gunpowder, ...

ancient China The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC), during the reign of king Wu Ding. Ancient historical texts such as the '' Book of Documents'' (early chapte ...

. In the year 2017, Chinese state media started to claim that

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

invented

high-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

, and

bike-sharing A bicycle-sharing system, bike share program, public bicycle scheme, or public bike share (PBS) scheme, is a shared transport service where bicycles are available for shared use by individuals at low cost. The programmes themselves include b ...

. However, none of those "four new inventions" were actually invented in mainland China.

High-speed rail

High-speed rail High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...

is a type of rail transport that operates significantly faster than traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks. "High-speed" is defined by the European Union as at least 250 km/h on new tracks, and 200 km/h on older tracks. The first high-speed train in the world was the

Tōkaidō Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 1964, ...

in Japan, whose service started in 1964, with the maximum speed 210 km/h. In mainland China, "high-speed" is defined as at least 250 km/h by design, with the minimum speed 200 km/h during initial service. In the year 2008, the first Chinese high-speed railway, known as the

Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway The Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway () is a Chinese high-speed railway that runs 117 km line (72.7 statute miles) between Beijing and Tianjin. Designed for passenger traffic only, the Chinese government built the line to accommodate tr ...

, started its service. China claimed to have the largest high-speed rail system in the world in the year 2016.

E-commerce

E-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

was invented in 1979 by

Michael Aldrich Michael Aldrich (22 August 1941 – 19 May 2014) was an English inventor, innovator and entrepreneur. In 1979 he invented online shopping to enable online transaction processing between consumers and businesses, or between one business and an ...

. The first internet shop was the

NetMarket NetMarket is an online marketplace owned by Trilegiant that sells various goods ranging from electronics to jewelry. It was founded in 1994 by Dan Kohn and Roger Lee, both former London School of Economics students, and by Guy H. T. Haskin and E ...

in 1994. In mainland China, the e-commerce began in the year 1999, such as

Dangdang E-commerce China Dangdang Inc. (), known as Dangdang, is a Chinese electronic commerce company, founded by Peggy Yu and Li Guoqing in 1999. It is headquartered in Beijing and its main competitors are Amazon.cn (or Amazon China, formerly Joyo. ...

and

Joyo.com Amazon China (Chinese: 亚马逊中国), formerly known as Joyo.com (Chinese: 卓越网), is an online shopping website. Joyo.com was founded in early 2000 by the Chinese entrepreneur Lei Jun in Beijing, China. The company primarily sold books an ...

(now

Amazon China Amazon China (Chinese: 亚马逊中国), formerly known as Joyo.com (Chinese: 卓越网), is an online shopping website. Joyo.com was founded in early 2000 by the Chinese entrepreneur Lei Jun in Beijing, China. The company primarily sold books a ...

). After that,

Taobao Taobao () is a Chinese online shopping platform. It is headquartered in Hangzhou and is owned by Alibaba. According to Alexa rank, it is the eighth most-visited website globally in 2021. Taobao.com was registered on April 21, 2003 by Alibaba Cl ...

was founded by

Jack Ma Jack Ma Yun (; born 10 September 1964) is a Chinese business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate. In addition, he co-founded Yunfeng ...

in 2003, and then 360buy (now

JD.com JD.com, Inc., also known as Jingdong (), internationally known as Joybuy and formerly called 360buy,

) was founded in 2004.

Mobile payment

Mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of d ...

generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device. It was originated in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

in the year 1997. In mainland China, mobile payments started from the beginning of the 21st century, famous for

Alipay Alipay () is a third-party mobile and online payment platform, established in Hangzhou, China in February 2004 by Alibaba Group and its founder Jack Ma. In 2015, Alipay moved its headquarters to Pudong, Shanghai, although its parent company An ...

and

WeChat Pay WeChat Pay () is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by WeChat based in China that allows users to make mobile payments and online transactions. As of March 2016, WeChat Pay had over 300 million users. WeChat Pay's main competitor in Chin ...

. According to the statistics, market penetration of mobile payments is 77% in mainland China, and 48% in the US, and 27% in Japan.

Bike-sharing

system is a service in which bicycles are made available for shared use to individuals on a very short-term basis for a price. The first bike-sharing system, known as the "white bicycle plan", was introduced in Amsterdam in the year 1965. In mainland China, the bike-sharing system started from

ofo Ofo (), stylised as ofo, was a Beijing-based bicycle sharing company founded in 2014. It used a dockless system with a smartphone app to unlock and locate nearby bicycles, charging an hourly rate for use. In 2017, it had deployed over 10 mil ...

in the year 2014, and then there came the

Mobike Mobike ( zh, s=摩拜单车, p=mó bài dān chē), also known as Meituanbike, founded by Beijing Mobike Technology Co., Ltd. ( zh, s=北京摩拜科技有限公司), is a fully station-less bicycle-sharing system headquartered in Beijing, Chin ...

in the year 2015.

References

{{reflist 2017 in China Propaganda in China