How China has left us in the dust in technology
That image of China as a developing country that copied, manufactured poor-quality products, and lacked innovation is now history. Today, the world's second, or perhaps even first, economic power is one of the leading centers of innovation in all areas: technological, scientific, and economic. However, what most surprises tourists and visitors who have traveled to the country in recent years is the extent to which these advances and transformations have been rapidly integrated into the daily lives of the population.
Although many differences still exist between rural areas and cities, the majority of Chinese people—and we're talking about a total of 1.4 billion—are fully digitalized and have incorporated technological tools into their daily lives. In fact, there is no physical money in circulation, nor are there any cards. Everything works through mobile applications, from scheduling a medical consultation to giving alms to someone in need. While this has advantages in terms of convenience and access to services and opportunities, it also has its drawbacks. In an authoritarian society where state control is omnipresent, digitization greatly facilitates the work: it allows for much more detailed knowledge of trends, what interests people, what they are doing, and what they are saying.
This technological revolution has been made possible by a targeted strategy involving long-term state planning to ensure the transition. This includes aid and subsidies at all levels: for research, manufacturing, and purchasing. It also, of course, includes energy planning and distribution. For example, by creating massive solar parks on the Tibetan Plateau with hundreds of kilometers of solar panels that, due to the freezing climate, retain energy better before being distributed thousands of kilometers away. This energy is transported via very high-voltage lines to, for example, large data centers for training artificial intelligence, an area in which the Chinese are also leaders.
The targeted strategy has also focused on automating factories to reduce the cost of, for example, the electric cars they are exporting worldwide. Within the country, where the vehicle fleet is still only a third (calculated in cars per 1,000 inhabitants) of that in Spain, the number of users has multiplied in the last decade. But what's interesting is that the vast majority of the middle class that has grown in recent years—believed to far exceed 700 million, equivalent to the entire population of Europe—has largely bypassed combustion engine cars. They've skipped this stage and gone directly to electric vehicles. Hence the silence that surprises many European travelers when they visit the country.
At this point, it's clear that to know what the future holds, we shouldn't look (or not only) to the United States, but to China. Things are happening there that will eventually reach us and impact our lives. Even, judging by how things are going, that strange combination of planned capitalism and digital authoritarianism.
