Is China Winning the Technological Arms Race?

Is China Winning the Technological Arms Race?

From Machines Like Us by The Globe and Mail

January 27, 2026 · 56 min · Episode 39

About this episode

The episode explores China's rise as a technological superpower and its implications for the global order.

If we don’t build it, China will. That’s the rallying cry of the tech companies and governments racing to develop artificial intelligence as fast as humanly possible. The argument is that whoever reaches AGI first won’t just be dominant technologically, or economically – they’ll be the world’s next super power. But, if I’m being honest, I don’t know if that framing holds up. And part of the reason for that is that we don’t really understand China. Enter Keyu Jin. Jin is a Harvard trained economist who splits her time between London and Beijing, and her book, The New China Playbook, is her attempt to “read China in the original” – to provide a firsthand look at the forces that shaped the country’s unprecedented rise. China’s success is a puzzle. How did one of the poorest nations on the planet become the second richest in less than a century? How did an economy without free markets birth a tech sector that rivals – and in some ways surpasses – Silicon Valley? The answers to these questions aren’t academic. China became a global power without capitalism and without democracy, which means its success has profound implications for both. And as Canada sets out to find its footing in a…

People in this episode

Guest: Keyu Jin

Topics covered

  • China
  • artificial intelligence
  • technological arms race
  • economics
  • global power

Keywords

  • AGI
  • The New China Playbook
  • Silicon Valley
  • global economy

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The New China Playbook

Books & works: The New China Playbook

Places: China, London, Beijing, Silicon Valley, Canada

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