The great AI reckoning: how China is flipping the script on US’ new industrial revolution
From EVs to robotics, China’s advancement in cutting-edge tech has seen it shake off the West’s long-standing belief in US exceptionalism
As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding, it confronts a new world order dominated by its relationship with China. In this wide-ranging series, we examine the pressure points and possibilities in those ties, from hard tech to soft power. Here, Vincent Chow looks at how China challenges core American assumptions about innovation and technology, and the historical stakes of their competition in artificial intelligence.
In 1969, the renowned British sinologist Joseph Needham posed a series of questions about China so influential that they became known as the “Needham Question”.
At its core, Needham was trying to reconcile China’s past glories with what he saw in the China of the mid-20th century.
Namely, why did the 18th-century Industrial Revolution happen in Europe and not China, a country that had led the world in technological innovation up until the 15th century, and what were the reasons for technology and science in China stagnating for centuries thereafter?