The United States and China are competing for dominance in technology. America has long been at the forefront of developing the technologies (bio, nano, information) essential to economic growth in the 21st century and American research universities dominate higher education worldwide. In Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s annual Academic Ranking of World Universities, 16 of the top 20 institutions are located in the US; none are in China.
But China invests heavily in research and development, and is already competing with the US in key areas, not least artificial intelligence, where it aims to be a global leader by 2030. Some experts believe that China is well placed to achieve that goal, due to its vast data resources, lack of privacy restrictions in using that data, and the fact that advances in machine learning require more skilled engineers than advanced scientists. Given the importance of machine learning as a general-purpose technology affecting many other domains,…