I was outside a campus of a local primary school in Beijing the other day and noticed a flag-raising ceremony for the new semester. I understand this is part of the efforts by the school authorities to cultivate patriotism through strengthening the students' awareness of a common identity.

This event reminded me of a recent article carried in the South China Morning Post, which argued that China's stress on patriotism could actually hinder the country from becoming an innovative force.

The article, "Patriotism is a poor master of innovation," pointed out that China pays too much attention to patriotic education, often at the expense of efforts to encourage innovation.

When it comes to innovation, there are many factors that contribute to the lack of it in China, but patriotism is not one of them.

A study in 2012 reported by Innovation News Daily shows that countries like Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Sweden enjoy high rates of national innovation along with more individualistic countries like the US. What is in common in those countries and regions? These places have people "who value loyalty to a corporation, university or nation far more than themselves as individuals." In other words, they have a strong sense of patriotism.

The patriotic culture allows these societies to take necessary risks and make hard sacrifices to innovate, according to Mark Zak Taylor, assistant professor of international affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Patriotism can also be of significant help to China's development.

Renowned molecular biologist Shi Yigong left Princeton University in 2007 for China, despite a reported grant of $10 million to his study from a prestigious research institute in the US.

What attracted Shi most was not a higher salary or more financial support. He made his decision due to patriotism and the desire to change the country he was born and grew up in for the better.

Shi said he realized that the Chinese government was endeavoring to strengthen science and technology studies, reform the education system, and upgrade the quality of research and teaching in Chinese universities so as to narrow the gap with the world's first-class universities. He said he wants to devote himself wholeheartedly to the development of China's science and technology.

Shi is not alone. Li Yanhong, the founder of Baidu, the most popular Chinese search engine, is also a returnee from the US.

Baidu has drawn quite a few Chinese professionals from the US. Besides Li, there is Fan Li, who had built a successful career with rich experience working at Google and Cisco before resettling in China. Commenting on her decision to come back to China, she cited "now is the time to contribute" as one of the important reasons.

There are many other Chinese returnees, who are dedicated to the rise of China by making good use of their knowledge and skills.

A survey conducted in 2011 by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation revealed that 51 percent of Chinese returnees took pride in contributing to economic development in their home country.

The recent few years have witnessed the number of students returned from overseas growing by some 30 percent a year.

Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that in 2012, 272,900 Chinese students returned to China after studying overseas, more than half of the number of students who went abroad to pursue their studies.

In a recent interview, Ann Lee, a professor at New York University and author of the book What the US Can Learn from China, believes that "China is catching up in its understanding of current technologies and will eventually be in a position to contribute more to breakthrough technologies."

With all the efforts to push for more innovation, the stress on patriotism doesn't hurt. In fact, it helps.

The author is a commentator on current affairs with China Radio International. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn