2023-05-15
13 分钟So when I was born in China in the early 1980s, my country was still a place of scarcity.
We lived on rationed food,
cooked from communal kitchens and even in Beijing had three nights of blackouts every week.
I remember reading poems with my father by candlelight.
A special memory from times when Chinese people had little.
And fast forward three decades, China has turned into a country of abundance,
especially when it comes to technological power.
From high tech to business tech to everyday tech,
there isn't anything you can't find, only things you can't imagine.
I can buy a can of Coke by scanning my face.
A few years ago, I called for toothpaste from my hotel room, and it was delivered to me by a robot.
I've seen people live in remote Tibetan mountains blast off cool music with Walkmans powered by solar cells
and Chinese solar technology light up homes for African kids
who used to study by candlelight, just like me when I was growing up.
So this striking swell of innovation happened even though China remains a developing country,
with just a little more than 10,000 dollars of per capita GDP.
So today I want to offer you a different lens to look through,
one that shows a unique model that has fostered innovation and technological growth.
Now the system is far from perfect.
And like you, I worry about the rising tensions of a tech race and beyond.