The media has dubbed Liu Ruopeng China's Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors, because of their similar entrepreneurial streaks.

Liu, 32, has launched a dazzling range of products often seen in sci-fi movies, such as a jetpack that propels a person into space and body armor that helps increase physical strength.

He called himself a "dreamer" during an interview with China Daily after attending a sectoral conference that was addressed by President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing earlier.

"I'm an innovator who wants to change the world with the power of science and technology," says Liu, who has four listed companies.

He returned to China from the United States in 2009 and a year later set up his Shenzhen-based Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology in the southern Guangdong province.

The institute now has about 1,500 employees across the world.

A fan of the fantasy genre, he says his high-tech products are designed for the future just like in Hollywood films. "Our jetpack is similar to the one seen in Iron Man and our 'cloud' in Big Hero 6."

The "cloud" he talks about is a high-attitude balloon capable of sending Wi-Fi signals to millions of people.

Liu attributes his success to a futuristic approach.

"At first I figure out what we need in the future. Thereafter, I look for the technology sup-port that would be necessary to make them and finally I try to make the products," he says.

Liu and his fellow researchers made a splash in the scientific community in 2009 after they published an article on the invention of a Harry Potter-like cloak of invisibility in the Science journal.

He was then doing his PhD in electrical and computer engineering at Duke University in the US.

The cloak is made of meta-material that is created to deflect light on its surface.

Liu says the technology of the invisibility cloak is used in the military while metamaterial is at the core of some of his high-tech creations.

His Shenzhen-based institute was authorized in November to build the first State lab for the development of meta-material electromagnetic modulation technology.

While Liu aspires to build a global innovation business, some critics say he spends more time marketing his concepts than launching products.

"I welcome open discussions on our technologies and scientific research. But I refuse to give in to rumors or hurtful words," says Liu.

"I have unveiled so many products in a short time that the media and public may need more time to understand that."

When he returned to China in 2009, metamaterial was thought to be pseudoscience. Even in the West, it was still a comparatively new concept, says Liu.

He and four other Duke PhDs began their research with only 200,000 yuan ($30,000) in their pockets at the time.

Liu says his father sold a car to support his institute in Shenzhen.

Setting up his Asian innovation center in Singapore in June, the man now has branches in about 12 countries and regions.

"I try to finish the urgent work at hand so that I can be with my wife when she gives birth to our baby later this year," says a smiling Liu.

Liu's wife used to be his doctoral schoolmate at Duke and now works in the Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology.

Yue Yutao, 34, director of the research and development department of Liu's Shenzhen institute, says: "Liu is always full of strange yet innovative ideas."

Yue started to work there in 2011. He says Liu is "gifted both in scientific research and business management". The word "tired" is not part of Liu's life and his ambitious plans can easily excite people around him.

Liu draws his inspiration from Isaac Newton, who in his words changed the world in many ways.

Liu hopes he can be an innovator who will make significant changes. He knows that the road will be a lonely one.

Liu was born in Xi'an in Northwest China's Shaanxi province and later moved to Shenzhen with his parents.

He says his school years in Shenzhen and later in the eastern Zhejiang University turned him into an innovative man who wants to break boundaries in science.

Liu says that later this month his aircraft Traveler, with people on it will have a test flight over the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Last June, the aircraft had its first flight over New Zea-land.

"The most exciting moments in my life come from successful launches of my high-tech products," says Liu, adding that they make him feel the future is much closer to the present and that's why he calls himself a "future designer".