China’s Tech Tomorrow

1 - BAT

You might know of FAANG: That’s short for Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet), the five giants that rule American tech. Well, its counterpart in China is BAT: Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. And while they each dominate their own arenas — Baidu is China’s largest search engine, Alibaba is the king of e-commerce, and Tencent is the social media and gaming boss — there’s one area they command jointly: artificial intelligence. Between them, the three firms are investors in more than half of China’s top 190 AI firms.

2 - Classroom, with Chinese Characteristics

As school starts, the students put on their headbands and begin an exercise where the AI-powered device on their heads measures just how well they’re concentrating on an assigned task. Their scores are sent to their parents. It’s just one of a myriad ways in which China is using AI to revolutionize schooling — from robots that take attendance and teach basic lessons to facial recognition cameras that ensure students are paying attention in class. It’s controversial, but the parts that work could shape our future classrooms.

3 - Robot Colleagues

China wants to automate its manufacturing to increase productivity. But unlike the West with its declining youth population, China needs to find employment for tens of millions of new job seekers each year. So it’s found a smart balance that also holds promise for other emerging but young economies such as India, Indonesia and Nigeria: so-called “cobots.” These are robots that work with human colleagues instead of replacing them, and they’re ideal for smaller businesses that want to automate some of their systems but can’t afford — and don’t need — large, industrial-scale robots.

4 - Data Farms

The predictive accuracy of AI hinges on the volumes of data at its service. And that’s where China’s giant AI farms come into play. These are large hubs where thousands of workers sit at terminals, scrutinizing mountains of data and using it to refine the systems behind everything from driverless cars to facial recognition. Don’t miss the irony: China’s AI prowess ultimately depends on human labor.

5 - Big Brother

But there’s a darker side to China’s use of AI. Beijing is building the world’s first AI-based policing system. It has used facial recognition to monitor the minority Uyghur community in Xinjiang, and robot police officers for security in other cities, sparking concerns of misuse. China is also incorporating AI into the military infrastructure. It has already tested drones that can carry passengers.

1 - Pandemic Edge

The U.S. and Europe have struggled with delays in the rollout of this technology that could transform everything from transportation to health care. But the coronavirus crisis isn’t holding China back: It’s building tens of thousands of base stations every week and already has more than 450 million 5G users, according to official figures. Catching up with that lead won’t be easy.

2 - Geopolitical Storm

But spreading globally will be just as difficult for China. The U.S., U.K., Australia, New Zealand and Canada have banned China’s biggest manufacturer of 5G networks, Huawei, citing security concerns. Others such as Singapore have chosen Huawei’s rivals. But will bans alone work in helping the West gain 5G supremacy?

3 - Setting the Standards

Even as China faces international challenges, it is driving the process of setting global standards in 5G technology, submitting more technical recommendations to the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union last year than the next three nations — South Korea, the U.S. and Japan — combined. That could give Beijing an advantage in deciding international rules for 5G use.

4 - City of the Future

Dusty and isolated, the city of Yinchuan is China’s unlikely candidate for a model 5G city of the future. It plans to use the technology to power everything from smart street lighting and automated garbage disposal to traffic management and facial recognition-based payments on public transport. Could this be how all our cities look a decade from now?

5 - Health to Himalayas

China has started using 5G networks for emergency medical care. And the country’s ambitions are touching new heights — literally. China is building 5G antennas on top of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak. Officially, the idea is to help hikers and climbers access the internet from heights where it was previously impossible. But that 24/7 access to the top of Mount Everest could also hold strategic benefits.

1 - DiDi Dominance

Uber took on DiDi Chuxing in China and lost, selling its business there to the ride-sharing giant in 2016. Though DiDi announced last month it would delist from the New York Stock Exchange, its most recent valuation of $39 billion makes it a close competitor to Uber. DiDi’s popular app-based service is also available in Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and beyond.

2 - Boom and Bust

Only recently, it appeared as though China’s tradition of cycling was getting a technological makeover. A nation of cyclists that has switched to fancy cars moved back to modern bike sharing. Startup Ofo’s distinctive yellow bikes became ubiquitous around China’s megacities, and 60 other firms followed in its path, confident that it would lead to success. It did for a while, but poor infrastructure meant no one broke even, and an eagerly awaited cycling revolution has stopped in its tracks, with many of these firms folding. It’s a cautionary tale. Not everything works, even in China.

3 - Auto Ace

For years, China has suffered the reputation of a copycat — former President Donald Trump insisting Beijing had been stealing everything from vaccine data to military secrets. But one area where China’s making a clean break is in auto innovation. And backed by their government, Chinese firms are buying up international firms with expertise to make up for the lack of adequate domestic talent. That’s allowing them to race to the front in developing some of the world’s smartest and most sophisticated cars.

4 - Space Dreams

And the country’s ambitions aren’t limited to planet Earth. As it races against the U.S. in outer space — China launched its first Mars mission in July 2020 — the country is also breeding a rapidly growing private space industry that might soon be able to compete against SpaceX.

1 - World on Your Phone

Combine Facebook, WhatsApp, Amazon, Uber and PayPal into one — and that’s WeChat, China’s super app. It has nearly 1.2 billion users across China and increasingly in Southeast Asia and other parts of the continent. And while India has banned the app, and President Trump once threatened to block its use in the U.S., WeChat’s unmatched integration of social media and e-commerce has made China the ideal test market for major global brands, including the world’s biggest luxury giants.

2 - The Next Amazons

Jeff Bezos’ Amazon is the biggest e-commerce platform in the world, but China’s JD.com and Alibaba are second and third, and are nipping at its heels. Alibaba’s earnings in a 24-hour span on Singles’ Day in China in 2019 were greater than Amazon’s sales over the previous quarter.

3 - Upstarts

But newer pretenders are threatening to challenge these giants by focusing — for a start at least — on more niche, but still large, audiences. Mogujie is a social e-commerce platform that sells only young female fashion, while XiaoHongShu targets 18-35-year-old women keen to buy luxury goods from abroad.

4 - Gaming

Tencent, which owns WeChat, is also the world’s largest video game manufacturer, and has benefited from growing demand for online games during the pandemic. Now it’s looking to take on Alibaba and JD.com in mobile e-commerce more directly.

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