Reference News Network, February 12 report: On February 8, the Swiss website Neue Zürcher Zeitung published an article titled "Elon Musk and Others Are a Thing of the Past — China Is the New Tech Power," authored by James Knight. The following is an excerpt from the article:
Previously, the air here was filled with the smell of solder, plastic, welding, and cigarettes. Young people assembled cheap smartphones in old factories. Today, in the Huaqiangbei Electronics City of Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city, towering shopping centers occupy entire blocks. Elegant and minimalist showrooms display electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxis, humanoid robots that can perform various tricks, and stunning infrared camera drones for border security.
Here, one can buy air taxis, drones, and home robots. In this environment, a European might easily feel like a (Cold War-era) East German, dazzled by the "golden West" for the first time.
China has become a technological power. James Gink, a senior researcher at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said: "The era of China as a global leading technological power has arrived."
In Shenzhen, this is more evident than almost anywhere else. The city's industrial vitality is now shifting to the third dimension, with a large portion focused on automated logistics integrated into daily life: Meituan, the food delivery platform, completes tens of thousands of flights monthly in Shenzhen's "skyscraper canyon"; over 200,000 meals were delivered by drones across China in 2024, nearly twice as many as the previous year. Moreover, drones are also delivering blood to hospitals in dozens of cities, spraying fertilizers and pesticides in farmlands, assisting fire departments, and monitoring national borders.
In the showroom of Huaqiangbei, shiny electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, i.e., air taxis, shine brightly. These driverless vehicles can comfortably transport passengers to their destinations.
This shift in the landscape is also evident on the ground. In 2025, BYD surpassed Elon Musk's Tesla to become the world's largest producer of pure electric vehicles. BYD no longer dominates the market solely through sales but through so-called vertical integration: it produces almost all components itself, from semiconductors, motors, to batteries.
All these advances did not happen overnight but are the result of China's consistent modernization process that began in the late 1970s. China initially struggled to catch up, but now it has gradually entered a fast lane.
The rise of China's economy and technology is attractive, especially after U.S. President Trump clearly told all allies that they could no longer rely on the United States. Recently, the French president, Canadian prime minister, Finnish prime minister, and British prime minister have all visited Beijing. They know that after the old world order formed since the end of World War II has collapsed, the structure is being reshaped.
China was once just the world's factory. Now, China is driving innovation, based on a technical system spanning multiple industries. The extent to which China masters this technical system is unmatched by other countries. (Translated by Jiao Yu)
Original: toutiao.com/article/7605980935078625807/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.