Asia Insider Minute - Titans of Tech

When I use the term “Tech Titans,” who do you think of? Google? Amazon, Apple? How about Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent? If these names don’t ring a bell, you’re asleep at the wheel. And speaking of sitting behind the wheel, have you heard of NIO, XiaoPeng Motors, or SAIC? If you’re living in China, then maybe so. If not, then get out your Chinese dictionary. There’s more where this came from.

As my guest this episode, Rebecca Fannin, points out, few Westerners had heard of Toyota, Honda or Mitsubishi before the 1980s. It was on the back of the global oil crises that Japan offered drivers in the US and Europe a cheaper, more fuel-efficient solution. The rest is history. We may be looking at something similar this time around. Electronic Vehicles, or EVs are the next big thing in transportation and no effort or expense is being spared in China to become a world leader in EV design and manufacturing.

Rebecca is Founder of Silicon Dragon Ventures and author of the new book, Tech Titans of China. She’s been on the program once before. Exactly one year ago we spoke about the rise of China’s tech giants, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent – known collectively as the BAT. Four years earlier, Alibaba became the largest initial public offering in US history and true to investor expectations, the company under Jack Ma grew from strength to strength.

In our latest Inside Asia episode, we delve into the shocking growth of China tech and how in just the past year, US and other Western markets have thrown up a defense against the Chinese onslaught. 

Reading Rebecca’s book is like drinking from an advanced tech fire hose. She rattles off so many recent China tech sector achievements that I literally put down the Kindle to slow the spinning in my head. Here are a few:

• From 2010 to 2018, Chinese deal makers made 1,315 tech investments globally, investing $99.8 billion
• In addition, China R&D spending rose last year to $409 billion, and may exceed US R&D spend of $497 billion in just one or two years
• The country’s share of global patent applications has also skyrocketed. Today they’re in second place just behind the U.S, representing 21 percent of the global total 
• How will they keep it going? University graduates, and lots of them, 4.7 million scientists, technologists and engineers to be exact, dwarfing the mere 568,000 graduates coming out of US schools.
• And how about this, in 5G mobile infrastructure, China has vastly outspent the US and Western markets by investing US$24billion since 2015, earmarking another US$400billion in testing and development in the next ten years. Why is this important? Because all the hype around the Internet of Things and the 4thIndustrial Revolution is dependent on high-speed mobile networks. Without it, we’re living in the past.

There’s more at stake here that meets that eye. For some, China’s amped up tech ambitions equate to a play for global dominance. That may sound like paranoia, but not for countries that’ve benefitted from tech innovation. Make no mistake, American wealth and prosperity is due largely to a century of tech prowess, from advanced manufacturing to semiconductor innovation. It’s also fuelled the dominance of the US military complex and that’s where things get sticky. When the Chinese government talks of artificial intelligence leadership or mass automation of its industries, other countries hear something very different – they think advanced weaponry or commercial supremacy. In other words, fighting words. 

Of course, Trump’s anti-China rhetoric isn’t helping things. His efforts to de-link the US from China may satisfy some short-term objectives, but in the long-run it garners mistrust and lost opportunities to collaborate rather than compete. If the world is faced with vast problems ranging from over population to climate change, now is the time to put aside petty national interests to think about humanity at large. Technology could save us, but not if we’re at war. 

Where do you – the listener – fall on the subject of China’s tech dominance? Is it probable or overstated? What could get in its way and what’s the probability that politics displace pragmatism at the precise moment when the global population needs tech the most? We want to know what you think. Rate and comment on this episode wherever you download your podcasts.

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