From Spectrum Online: how technology is driving the country’s economic boom, and what that means for the world.
…..China’s growing technological prowess: its 300 million cellphone subscribers”the most in the world”its two national wireless carriers, and the hundreds of domestic and foreign service providers and manufacturers that now vie for a share of its burgeoning telecom market. And it illustrates, more generally, how China’s emergence as an industrial powerhouse is driven by, and is driving, its interactions with the world.
In ways scarcely imaginable 25 years ago, when Deng Xiaoping first opened the economy to market forces, China’s fortunes are the world’s. And what happens now, even in remote Chengdu, matters”not just for the Chinese but for everyone.
In planning this special report, the editors of IEEE Spectrum were most intrigued by this last phenomenon. How is China’s tech revolution unfolding? Who are the
key actors, and why are they there? Is everyone a winner, or is this in some ways a zero-sum game? What are the sources of friction”within China, as well as between China and its trading partners”that could slow down or even halt this juggernaut?This special report is not intended as an exhaustive survey of China, nor a primer on doing business there. No doubt there are lessons to be learned here, but our aim is to tell a handful of stories that illustrate the complex web of connections being formed, shaped, and exploited by China’s awesome rise.
