Taoism believes that the universe is governed by an interconnected, dynamic ‘way’ while Confucianism is the social study of human ethics. Mandarin was the lingua franca for centuries while also being the only surviving ancient script. China pioneered paper, block-printing, the compass, silk, astronomy, geometry, the abacus, and gunpowder amongst countless inventions dating back as far as even 8000 BCE as capitalism’s ancient ancestors.
Alibaba is the world’s biggest retail e-commercial B2B company with gross merchandise volume surpassing $1 trillion and around a 30% global e-commerce market share. Baidu had around a 90% domestic mobile search share as China’s third most popular app. Huawei had a one-third share of the 5G global equipment and smartphone market by 2020 having constructed over 100,000 global 5G base stations.
JD had a third-placed 9% of the global e-commerce market having pioneered e-commerce drone delivery and is constructing 150 drone airports. Tencent is in possession of the biggest data ecosystem globally with WeChat Pay operating 17 currencies in 49 countries. Xiaomi is India’s largest smartphone brand and was third globally in late 2020 with sales in 74 countries by 2019 including Egypt and Russia.
By 2018 the US had already been caught in Internet AI and China is predicted to have a 60-40 advantage by 2023. China’s lead in Perception AI such as facial recognition is already 60-40 but this could extend to 80-20 by 2023. Autonomous AI, able to visualise, listen, and feel its surrounding world, will see China level with the US by 2023.
Chinese share of global consumption growth will be $6.2 trillion and 18% between 2015 and 2030 overtaking the US and Western Europe by 2030. By 2025 there will be more billion-dollar revenue generating companies in China than the US. By 2050 China’s economy is projected to be 150% the size of the US’ at $105 trillion to $70 trillion by PPP and $50 trillion to $34 trillion by GDP.
China is the globe’s biggest market for electric vehicles (EVs) with 1.8 million sales in 2021. Already 45% (reaching a majority by 2025) of China’s overall installed power capacity is renewable at over 1,000 GW at around one-third globally. Over 500 smart cities are being constructed in China. The $583 billion Xiong’an New Economic Area, the world's first AI city, will become northern China’s centre of innovation with only EVs and autonomous vehicles (AVs) and be 100% renewably powered. China already constitutes at least 70% of global 5G base stations (over one million) and 5G connections, 60% of global 5G devices, and 200 million users and will achieve full commercialisation nationally by 2023.
Full implementation of the BRI will have occurred by 2049 with the majority by 2040. Up to 152 countries (70% of the global total) are an active participant in the BRI with Africa the highest regionally including 38 Sub-Saharan African countries. By April 2020 over 3,000 projects valued in excess of $4 trillion had been established which will over-double to 7,000 projects by 2050. There were $141.5 billion in new BRI contracts in 2020. By May 2019 $1.25 trillion had been invested in the BRI with up to $8 trillion overall representing the biggest infrastructural initiative in history. 2040 global GDP will be increased by $7.1 trillion (a 4.2% direct increase and at over $10 billion for 56 countries) and by 8.3% from 2019.
China is already the global leader in many Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies such as renewable energy, blockchain, cloud computing, AI, AVs, 5G, and the IoT for example that will be exported as part of the Digital Silk Road. Huawei began in 2017 to build the fibre-optical telecommunication 13,000 km Pakistan East African Cable Express connecting with Kenya and Djibouti in 2019 with future extension to Egypt and South Africa while by 2025 Nigeria will be completely covered. 34 Chinese companies by January 2020 were constructing 398 smart cities including 5G projects in 106 countries including India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Turkey.
JD.com will open twenty autonomous warehouses along the BRI for e-commerce expansion while Alibaba’s involves providing fintech services in India and South-East Asia. China had already constructed over a minimum 110 GW of renewable energy across the BRI by 2019 including at least 38 GW in Africa, 56 GW in Asia, and 17 GW in Latin America at over a minimum $100 billion investment with $27 billion in Africa, $62 billion in Asia, and $13 billion in Latin America. China will invest a minimum $644 billion to construct at least 644 GW of renewable power capacity in 38 Belt and Road countries by 2030.
Chinese BRI projects in Europe totalled around $71.1 billion in 2019. The Budapest-Belgrade High-Speed Railway will connect Central European energy and steel to Greece’s Piraeus port in 11 days. Latin American projects reached $72.7 billion in 2019 including the $2.4 billion 11 GW Sao Simao Hydroelectric dam in Belo Monte will connect to Sao Paulo’s grid through a 2,084 km ‘electric super highway’. African projects accounted for $467 billion by November 2019. The $20 billion New Cairo in 2050 will be bigger than Madrid at 714 km2 with a 23 km2 park, Africa’s tallest tower at 385 m, biggest church, the largest opera house outside of Europe, an innovation technology park, and 40,000 hotels. The 1.8 GW Benban solar park is also the fourth largest globally.
South and South-East Asia had received around $426 billion by 2019. Malaysian smart cities include the $100 billion Forest City and the $10.62 billion Melaka Gateway Port. India’s projects include the $30 billion Amaravati Sustainable Capital City and the $30 billion Madhya Pradesh Rural Connectivity Project while the $25 billion Kunming-Calcutta High-Speed Rail route has also been proposed. Over $8 billion has also been invested in 8.76 GW of Indian wind and solar projects. By 2050 Asia’s share of global GDP will increase to over 50% reaching this by 2040 by PPP. By GDP in 2030 Asia will make up half of the global top 30.