Recently, two authors, including former Google CEO Schmidt, wrote in The Atlantic that foreign visitors to China often experience a "future shock" brought by Chinese enterprises. They are all amazed by skyscrapers, high-speed railways, grand bridges, and the omnipresent electric vehicles, powerful super apps, and foldable screen phones.

The article argues that, in the face of various so-called "decline" arguments, China has shown extraordinary resilience. China is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter. Over two-thirds of the world's electric vehicles, four-fifths of photovoltaic components and battery units, and about 60% of wind turbines are produced in China. China also processes the majority of the world's rare earths, which are essential materials for everything from chips to fighter jets. Even as economic growth slows, China's technological push has never ceased.

Former Google CEO Schmidt wrote in The Atlantic

Schmidt and another author wrote with examples of companies, stating that when Xiaomi was founded in 2010, many mocked it as an "Apple imitator." Now, Xiaomi has become one of China's most valuable companies, with a market value of approximately $150 billion. Younger generations have Xiaomi products in their homes. In 2024, Xiaomi launched its first electric vehicle. A month before the launch of Xiaomi's first electric car, Apple announced the termination of its ten-year, $1 billion electric vehicle development project.

The article believes that Xiaomi's success reflects a significant characteristic of many Chinese tech companies: they independently build hardware. This makes it easier for Xiaomi to develop new products because these products can quickly prototype, optimize, and scale up production.

The two authors also mentioned that Xiaomi's success is due to China's existing supply chain system, infrastructure, and technical strength. In China, electricity costs are low, construction projects are completed quickly, and there are skilled workers in various technical fields. Over the past decade, China has installed about half of the world's industrial robots, more than 70% of the high-speed railway mileage, over half of the 5G base stations, and its power generation capacity is more than twice that of the United States.

The article emphasizes that Xiaomi is not an exception. Huawei has expanded from producing telecom equipment and manufacturing phones to developing and supplying automotive parts. Alibaba is currently developing inference chips for its "Qwen" series of AI models. XPeng Motors has started testing humanoid robots. In this process, these companies have developed employees' professional skills and built supply chain systems, which can be transferred to future emerging industries.

At the same time, the open-source trend is flourishing in China's artificial intelligence field, which has become a major advantage for China. Chinese companies frequently announce the weights and training methods of their AI models, which equals allowing users to freely download, modify, and call the model (weights are numerical values that determine how AI weighs different input information). When DeepSeek was introduced earlier this year, what shocked people was not only that Chinese models had caught up with the U.S., but also that it released its weights. In the following months, Chinese big companies - Alibaba, ByteDance, Baidu - and startups - Minimax, Moonshot, StepFun, and Zizhi Engine - have launched open-source AI models in large numbers.

"It won't be long before Chinese AI becomes standard in many regions around the world, especially in the Global South. This will in turn benefit China, attracting more developers, enhancing the competitiveness of Chinese technology, and enabling China to lead global technology standards. Its impact will be more profound than China's billions of investments in the Belt and Road infrastructure projects. It seems that China has realized the power of open-source AI," the article also wrote.

The two authors found that walking on the streets of China, people can truly feel the country's strong desire to leap forward into the future.

The article mentions that in 1896, when Li Hongzhang, a Qing Dynasty official, visited the United States, he was shocked by New York City's skyscrapers. He told American journalists, "I have never seen such a scene," and lamented, "You are the most creative nation in the world."

Now, foreign visitors to China often experience a "future shock." Skyscrapers, high-speed railways, large bridges, and the ubiquitous electric vehicles, apps, and foldable screen smartphones amaze them. China has become an innovation powerhouse. Currently, China holds 70% of global AI licensing patents, 75% of global patent applications for clean energy technologies, 41% of licensing patents for life sciences and biotechnology, and its nuclear fusion technology patent applications exceed those of any other country.

The article believes that if the U.S. truly wants to achieve reindustrialization, it must double down on what it does best: supporting scientific research, formulating inclusive immigration policies, and removing regulatory barriers. However, the U.S. tech community must also face its own shortcomings - particularly in hardware fundamentals, diversity of the AI industry, and embracing open source.

The two authors finally warned that if the U.S. remains obsessed with arrogance or hostility and refuses to acknowledge China's strengths, it may eventually become a more closed and protectionist country. In the long run, the U.S. will face problems such as expensive domestic electronics, high electricity prices, and declining university strength, and may even lose its position as the world's top superpower.

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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7571023458793849386/

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