Repeat After Me: Never, Ever Underestimate China
President Xi Jinping's focus on higher education has paid off, with roughly 40% of high-school graduates going to university and engineering being the most popular major for post-graduate studies, greatly expanding the nation's talent pool.
China's pragmatic approach to the AI arms race, its cost advantage in advanced manufacturing, and its ability to produce innovative products with premium prices have contributed to its success and will make Chinese brands increasingly known globally for their design and aesthetic flair.
Between 2000 and 2020, the number of engineers ballooned from 5.2 million to 17.7 million;
in 2022, 47% of the world’s top 20th percentile AI researchers finished their undergraduate studies in China, well above the 18% share from the US.
The nagging question is how thought leaders in the West got the world’s second-largest economy so wrong. Some of it, I suspect, is elites’ aversion to visiting an autocracy whose political values are different from their core beliefs.
Going forward, Chinese brands will be increasingly known globally for their design and aesthetic flair. Shoppers will get to appreciate the most silent air conditioners, quiet luxury designer bags, fragrances that rival Le Labo, and even gelatos that taste as good as those in Italy
Shuli Ren Bloomberg December 23, 2025
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-12-23/repeat-after-me-never-ever-underestimate-china
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