Chatham House
![]() |
The world should take the prospect of Chinese tech dominance seriously, and start preparing now
EXPERT COMMENT
Washington and its allies will have diverging priorities as they enter an age of increasing Chinese tech leadership.
Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s breakthrough model tanked US tech stocks this week, as it became clear that it rivals the performance of Western models like ChatGPT – but was reportedly developed at a fraction of the cost.
Earlier in the month, US users of China’s TikTok, anticipating a ban, fled to the closest alternative – another Chinese social media app called Xiaohongshu. And on the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, China’s EAST reactor set a new record for sustainable fusion power.
An entrenched Western school of thought holds that China, being communist, conformist, or Confucian, cannot innovate effectively. That may have seemed credible while China was in a period of catching up with Western technological leadership: it was hardly likely to innovate its way to parity where replication was a more efficient solution.
But as the above examples show, in many areas China now keeps pace with or possesses the technological edge. China is increasingly a technology leader rather than a follower and more than capable of innovation.
While the US retains the lead across most areas of emerging technology, China is now a close peer competitor in areas such as robotics and AI, and leads in electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, and nuclear energy.
Complacency about US leadership, whether in Washington or in allied capitals, risks failure to take necessary actions now to ensure the US’s long-term position – and the relevance of technology leaders such as Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the UK.
Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.
Original article link: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/01/world-should-take-prospect-chinese-tech-dominance-seriously-and-start-preparing-now
![]() |
RESEARCH | EXPERTS | EVENTS | MEMBERSHIP | ACADEMY | ABOUT |