Technology Quarterly | The future

Technological progress in China could still lead to fireworks

Is a showdown likely with America?

CHINA’S TECHNOLOGICAL rise, brought about by an authoritarian state actively guiding a market-oriented industrial base with access to global supply lines, is unlike anything in history. That does not necessarily make it unstoppable, or world-beating. But the possibility that it will provide a definitive edge in technologies vital to 21st-century success makes the West anxious.

This article appeared in the Technology Quarterly section of the print edition under the headline “Of coupling and decoupling”

Poles apart: China, America and the planet's biggest break-up

From the January 4th 2020 edition

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