The speed at which this has happened was essentially a gift from Western companies and governments either asleep or deliberately ignorant at the wheel. It seems incredibly short-sighted to have sold a hard-earned technological edge for a quick buck. Huawei, for instance, was essentially a Chinese government program to illegally reverse-engineer tech from American companies. And now they cry foul when their smartphones are kept out of Western markets! The nerve!

Still, it seems naïve to think the West's technological edge could be maintained forever, especially given China's massive population and penchant for being the global leader in scholarship from time to time throughout history. It's an interesting time in The West and hard not to be pessimistic about it. One specific concern I have about tech in China is the impunity with which they may pursue Eugenic human gene editing in the near future. Given The West's, uh, problematic, history with Eugenics, it's unlikely these pursuits would happen at scale again here. I doubt China would be constrained by the same concerns. And what if it... works?