You’re being downvoted but i don’t think you’re entirely wrong. China has been pursuing some stuff that the western world had essentially abandoned, getting interesting wins (eg: thorium reactors).

He's wrong in the "why" tho. It's not that they must think outside the box, it's that they _must_ not all focus on a single point of research. I'm pretty sure that they are also pursuing popular research topics, because it would be pretty bad if they fall behind for not doing the obvious.