Beating Ericsson to a telecommunications bid in Sweden is like beating Toyota to an auto-making bid in Japan.

Yet an up-and-coming Chinese firm did beat Ericsson on its home turf, for what is still the Swedish company's forte.

And guess what, China's Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. landed with a 4G mobile phone infrastructure contract not because of its inexpensive "Made in China" products but thanks to its valued "Created in China" technologies.

A 4G cellular system, successor to systems of 3G and 2G standards, must have target peak data rates of up to 100 megabytes per second and up to 1 gigabyte per second for low and high mobilities.

It is therefore more technology than product that helps to materialize the ultra-broadband Internet access to mobile phone users.

Telenor, offerer of the bid, chose Huawei for its unfailing technology and service rather than its competitive pricing.

The Norwegian company's afterward comment on the bid winner is full proof that the shift China has made is a right one from mimicking foreign products and concocting low-end products to focusing on high-end technologies which in return help the country manufacture high-end and quality products with increasingly competitive edges.

It is this shift from copy to creativity that has differentiated Chinese companies between boom and bust during the ongoing global financial and economic difficulties.

Companies with strong research and development (R&D) capacities and independent intellectual property rights have succeeded in such sectors as information technology, new material and biochemical engineering, whereas companies sticking to original equipment manufacturer (OEM) productions have weathered unprecedented business hardships due to shrinking orders and falling benefits.

The difference between success and failure lays bare between companies that sharpen their competitiveness through boosting R&D and companies that lag behind in R&D only to see their former ground encroached upon or, worse still, lost out.

General Motors, for one, had to have US$57.6 billion out of the government Troubled Asset Relief Program to get it bailed out of bankruptcy and into a re-organization.

After decades of quantitative expansion, China has become an economy that now needs qualitative adjustment and refinement for sustained and sustainable development in the coming decades.

Many of China's companies, especially those in the auto and garment sectors, need creative thinking and action to hone their competitive edges in increasingly competitive markets both at home and abroad.

As already demonstrated, "Created in China" technologies and products made with these technologies tend to be securer guarantees than the mere "Made in China" products for profitability and hence sustainability.

Quite a few Chinese companies have joined the vogue, as China's high-tech industrial parks grew by 10 to 20 percent in the past year alone.

The "Made in China" label has not only assisted China in developing itself but also contributed to the well-being of other countries in the world.

In the years to come, the "Made in China" products manufactured through "Created in China" technologies will beef up China's manufacturing industry with added competitiveness and credibility.

People from across the world, Chinese included, will not only enjoy the quality products labeled as "Made in China" but benefit from products and services provided with "Created in China" technologies.

There should not be any doubt about China's creativity in that it has always been a nation full of fresh and creative minds, from ancient times up till right now.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2009)