Even as China rose to become the world leader in manufacturing the one thing that the US could still claim to be ahead on was technology and more specifically the best educational institutions.

This is changing very fast. There is an international competition called Robomasters in which a team of University students build a team of robots to fight. The finals take place in a huge stadium in Shenzhen every year. Robotics is the future of technology because it is the ultimate combination of software and hardware.

In this competition over the last several years American, European, Australian universities have had no chance against Chinese universities. The Chinese universities totally dominate in the competition. The winners get a 75,000 $ prize and a chance to work for DJI the world's #1 drone manufacturer that is 100% Chinese.

The Chinaman has risen and he is on a mission na hataki mchezo.

https://www.theverge.com...eo-frank-wang-interview

You should also note that a huge percentage of PhD students in western universities are Asians. So for competitions between western and chinese universities, you will be surprised that it is chinese competing among themselves. Also many of them go back to their countries after studies in the west so expect china and asia to develop very fast technologically.

@Kusadikika, people everywhere Don't like the same things. It only appears that most people like the same things now.

There was a time when globalization was less intense...

And China was still there...

Evil in an emotional context, not economic.
Hated the west dominance, now hating China's.

I had a long essay on china but i decided not to post it. I will just give a brief.
1. China is not big its vast.

2. Don't believe hype about china from the media, its a lie, be prepared to be shocked.

3. The country is immensely rich, richer than the USA.

4. Its power output far surpasses USA and Europe. Its damn cheap.

5. Americans go there to have their goods manufactured and sell them to us as high quality goods better than Chinese goods. Not true.

6. Cost of living is affordable e.g train ride from Nairobi to Thika can cost 20/= and it takes 10 mins. They fast.

7. water is a right.

8. Chinese are industrious and have a great respect for money.

9. Property rights is an illusion. Everything even what you own belongs to the Government. If you don't toe the state line, you are arrested and everything you own is confiscated.

10. Chinese are as cunning as we are so don't think because they white that they are honest. They will steal you blind if you don't watch it.

11. Its a police state pure and simple. Everything is heavily monitored. police everywhere spies, CCTV cameras news media.

12. Facebook and whats app are not popular they have their own social media apps called QQ and we chat.

13. In this country you better not joke around. If you were born there unafanya ile kitu imekuleta hii dunia. Si kuleta nyoko nyoko or they will kill you even if means 100,000 people. They have more than 1.4 billion people to replace you. Just ask the uighurs.

14. politics is a career you apply like any other job si hile kupayuka kama ya hapa kenya where people from nowhere come tell us they are our leaders. You apply and the communist party vets you. They can accept or reject you. If you qualify then from there ni bidii yako.

15. Food and drink is damn cheap but beware most things are photocopies of the originals including whiskey wine and food. Chivas regal can go for 150/= a tot mc Donald burger soda and fries 200/=. ( when i was lastly there).

African food is treated as foreign delicacies and its expensive just like we treat Chinese food here in Kenya.

16. Due to photocopying of food the butchers have to display the head and tail of the animal slaughtered.

17. You can photocopy anything there for a price including mercedes benz.

18. The biggest chinese market is china. Its 1.4 billion people. They economies of scale in this market makes any businessman salivate. you make money by volume not price. It can sustain its economy with their own market.

19. why china and any other market like Germany like the USA markets are the margins involved. The USA citizens wanangogwa kugongwa kwa bei vi sawa fueled by their appetite for good things and loans.

20. The only thing limiting china to stand up to USA is technology which they are drawing close and military power but this is a matter of when not if.

If it succeeds and it likely will, the Belt & Silk dragon project will be the beginning of North Americas decline.

The only interesting thing is that to be a superpower - people need to not only acknowledge you because of your finances but also because of your culture and influence. Even Russia (USSR) was good at this. it had a ideology and it had people who followed the ideology. Turks, Persians even Muslim caliphates had an element of culture infusion whenever they took over. In the current setup - the Western world has been keen on this. We consume everything based on their metrics. We all want big houses with huge lawns. We even go to china to get stuff so that we can live not like the chinese but the westerners. The best versions of ourselves are framed in western culture and lifestyles and values. We don't build roads to be like china - we build them to be like some random white peoples country. China is a tool for the most part... everyone is using it, paying to it so that they can be as western as they can.

@limanika, and why did you leave out the Caliphate? Or you do not know they ruled the world for 100 years?