China is in an age of rapid technology development with AI, robots and drones - and many fear this relentless progress, and Xi Jinping’s desire to reabsorb Taiwan, will bring it into direct conflict with the United States.

But is China’s rise as inevitable and smooth as its leaders want it to be?

Our International Editor Lindsey Hilsum has returned from a trip to China where she was Channel 4 News' correspondent for years.

She was wowed by technological progress - but also found a younger generation exhausted and overwhelmed by political pressure, depression and burnout.

On this episode of The Fourcast, Lindsey and Matt Frei were joined by economist Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future, who argues that China’s system has unique strengths - and dangerous weaknesses - in the race for technological supremacy.