My prediction is that in the future, China will have the upper hand in the technology field. My reasons for thinking as so is because China has had the upper hand in technology before, China’s ambition for “Made in China 2025,”  China’s competitiveness and how China treats education. 

First, they had the upper hand before. Around 250 years B.C.E., Chinese soldiers named the Terra-Cotta Warriors had a weapon that allowed them to defeat all of their rivals. This weapon was called the crossbow, which was and is the world’s first machine gun. Other inventions include the printing press which was an invention in the Song Dynasty that allowed for paper money, the pound lock which allowed for easier travel across waterways, making trade better and easier, the magnetic compass and gunpowder.

The second reason is because of China’s ambition for “Made in China 2025.” In China, specifically Beijing, their ambitions for “Made in China 2025” has designs to dominate cutting edge technologies. These include AI, advanced microchips, and electric cars. China already has technology that will help with crime, robots working at lunch counters and working as room service. China also has facial recognition that will allow them to open doors which is leading the usage of keys to obsoletion. China has also picked up musically and shaped it into TikTok, which now has millions of downloads in the US. China has also developed a machine that detects cancer early and they are also trying to build a technical machine that will help the police find a missing person by simply taking a picture of the individual. 

The third reason is because of China’s competitiveness. I feel as if China’s competitiveness is stronger than the United States because China seems to value education a lot more. In China, they push education more in the technology and medical fields to their children. In the United States, we do the same but we are living in a society where people would rather have fame than be educated.

My final reason is because of how China treats education. China has one of the largest education systems in the world. In July 2020, there were about 10.71 million students who had taken the National Higher Education Entrance Examination in China. Education is important to the Chinese culture because traditional Chinese culture has attached great importance to education as a means of enhancing a person’s worth and career. China has three different categories of education: basic education, higher education and adult education. Basic education includes preschool education for three years, primary education for six years, and secondary education for six years. Higher education is divided into two separate categories: universities that provide a four- or five-year undergraduate degree and colleges that provide a three-year diploma or certificate courses on both academic and vocational subjects, with postgraduate and doctoral programs only being offered at universities. Lastly, adult education ranges from primary education to higher education. Primary education includes Workers’ Primary Schools and Peasants’ Primary Schools. Secondary education includes specialized secondary schools for adults.

The United States is trying to prevent China from having the upper hand in technology, namely by Biden passing his infrastructure plan. In a Forbes article, they mention how quickly the United States could fall behind China in terms of AI. China’s congress set out goals and a plan to become the leading economy in the world. Forbes states that the United States can push an industrial Renaissance by putting all of our focus on the digitization of AI and the electrification of infrastructure. They suggest a good start to this would be to release an AI mini moonshot on infrastructure by opening the sector’s investment potential. This will address regulation, identify the best practices and highlight priority brown field projects. The main goal here is to finally put the United States industrial commons in a position to compete globally. Let us see if the US could eventually win the race.