China's R&D

• China aims to become world leader in science and innovation by 2050. "Made in China 2025" announced in 2015, outlines China's strategy to become a world leader in a number of high-tech industries, such as robotics, aerospace equipment, medical devices, and more. 
• In 2017, China's R&D spending was about $280 billion, accounting for 2.12% of the country's GDP and representing 20% of total world R&D expenditure, (on par with Europe (34 countries)) with the rate of R&D investment growth significantly exceeding that of the U.S. and the EU. Expressed in PPP, China's investment in R&D was $370.6 billion in 2017, second to the $476.5 billion of the USA.
  | Related Megatrends: Technology; Inequalities
• Based on its R&D and industry strategy, China has become competitor in fast growing high-tech sectors, like nuclear energy, new energy vehicles, wind and solar PV, Artificial Intelligenc and some parts of advanced manufacturing and robotic (drones).
• Over the past 15 years, China has tripled its high-impact scientific efforts (as measured by its share of top 10% most-cited publications), reaching 14% – the second largest scientific powerhouse after the United States (that has 25%). | Related Megatrends: Technology
• China has 43% of the unicorn's value (start-ups valued at over $1 billion)
• Since 2016, China has had the most industrial robots in operation globally. The Robotics Industry Development Plan adopted in 2016 aims to accelerate the development of the industrial robotics sector. By 2020, China is expected to produce 150,000 industrial robot units and have 950,300 industrial robots in operation.
   | Related Megatrends: Technology; Security; Inequalities
• China is set to become the world's largest nuclear power producer by 2030, with a projected installed nuclear capacity increase from 34 GW in 2016 to 111 GW in 2030 and 145 GW in 2040. | Related Megatrends: Natural resources; Consumerism; Climate and environment

Digital power

• China's overall digitalization is medium in the global comparison, but it is global leader in some key industries and with its R&D and industrial strategy it strives for global leadership in further area.
• China plans to be world leader in AI by 2030. China has the top 3rd and 4th most powerful supercomputers.
• China’s digital economy becomes a leading global force. China has:
  • 731 million Internet users, more than the EU and the USA combined
  • 44% of worldwide M2M (machine-to-machine) sim card subscriptions (three times the share of the United States)
  • the world’s largest e-commerce market - accounting for over 40% of the global e-commerce transactions' value (from less than 1% about a decade ago)
  • China accounts for 32% of global ICT goods exports
  • the most active digital-investment and start-up ecosystems in the world, mainly active in big data, AI, and fintech
  •  mobile payments' value 11 times that of the USA (some 68% of Chinese Internet users are making mobile digital payments, compared with only around 15% in the USA)
  • the big digital power BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) provided 42% of all venture-capital investment in China in 2016 (compared to 5% by Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Netflix in USA) and - other digital innovators such as Xiaomi, NetEase and Ping An are also building their own ecosystems.
  • | Related Megatrends: Technology; Security; Governance
  • the Chinese 5G network equipment industry, got into a global trade war with the US blocking Huawei to supply its networks; the US is worried about cyber security vulnerabilities of the critical communication infrastructure that is crucial for industry 4.0 applications. Chinese Huawei is currently seen as a follower with Swedish Ericsson and South Korean Samsung as leaders in the in the 5G infrastructure provider market.