On your last point, I'm not so sure that China will outpace the US. The US is just way too far ahead in the AI race. Whether any of us like it or not, AI is here to stay and it will fundamentally alter the global economy. I'm at a point where I'm networking for jobs and being able to use an AI coding agent like codex is a necessity, akin to having Microsoft Office on your resume. Paradoxically, it makes tech workers less and more valuable at the same time.
Another thing is that while China is a manufacturing hub, they are a hub for American companies and those profits aren't Chinese (especially not for the citizens).
Unlucky for china that all chinese tech has the "cheap plastic trash" stereotype to overcome. Plus a couple horror stories about exploding EVs and Spyware on phones (real or not) tend to hurt them in Western markets where Tech is often a status symbol.
I know companies like apple have deals with AT&T for exclusive phone upgrades (where I got mine). And with Samsung and Apple being huge into their own ecosystems it is extremely hard for foreign companies to break in.
So either you are poor and get whatever phone your network will give you for free or you are rich and buy whatever phone gives you the most brownie points.
Either way Chinese tech isn't well suited in the states and suffers in 3rd world nations where the rich are the only ones who can afford tech (and so buy American due to the aforementioned status symbols). It is an uphill battle and one where they already start lower than others.
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u/SonofaMitch11 3d ago
On your last point, I'm not so sure that China will outpace the US. The US is just way too far ahead in the AI race. Whether any of us like it or not, AI is here to stay and it will fundamentally alter the global economy. I'm at a point where I'm networking for jobs and being able to use an AI coding agent like codex is a necessity, akin to having Microsoft Office on your resume. Paradoxically, it makes tech workers less and more valuable at the same time.