China’s old reputation when it came to tech was that of being the premier global manufacturer of knockoffs, not a site for innovative development. But China today is adopting new tech at truly incredible rates that surpasses most other countries. Rather than just talking about drone delivery, companies like JD are actually doing it. More people in China use mobile payments and participate in one-stop-shop digital ecosystems than almost the entire population of the US and Europe combined.

On the other hand, while the technology economy in China is thriving, the political economy remains restrictive. Google had its secret plans to cooperate in the “Great Firewall of China” internet censorship scheme leaked. However, Chinese activists have used the blockchain to get around official media blackouts on vaccine scares and sexual assault scandals

What is WeChat? Do we view ourselves as the leader of technological advances? What is leap-frogging? Is our established infrastructure getting in the way of our own ability to innovate? Does China represent the new “right way to do things”? What is Google’s Dragonfly Project?

Further Reading:

How E-Commerce Is Transforming Rural China, written by Jiayang Fan

Letter from Shenzhen, written by Xiaowei R. Wang

Chinese Citizens Are Using Blockchain to Warn Each Other of Unsafe Vaccines, written by Kristin Houser

North Korea’s Hidden Revolution: How the Information Underground Is Transforming a Closed Society, written by Jieun Baek

The Art of Escaping Censorship, written by Jessica Loudis

The employee backlash over Google’s censored search engine for China, explained by Alexia Fernández Campbell

Related Content:

Fifty Years after the Cultural Revolution, written by David Boaz

Innovative Maintenance, Maintaining Innovation, written by Pamela J. Hobart

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