Washington constantly agonizes over China's technological ambitions. Politicians used to worry about merely being overtaken. Now, they face a much bigger headache: China is sprinting far ahead on key tracks.
The US-China tech rivalry has profoundly flipped. The New York Times bluntly detailed this shift in a recent deep dive. In crucial sectors like batteries, solar energy, rare earths, and biomedicine, China is no longer the head-down student playing catch-up. It now reigns as a major exporter of the world’s most advanced technologies. This leaves the US in a dilemma. America craves access to China's mature and cheaper technologies, but fears over-reliance will trigger strategic risks.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL)
Take a look inside the factories of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL). As the world’s largest and most advanced battery manufacturer, its robotic arms move with the precision of ballet dancers. Long metal strips wound into rolls and shaped into blocks. These battery bricks will soon come to life to power electric vehicles and data centers globally.
Within the walls of this factory, the power dynamic between China and the US is quietly reversing.
American companies maintained a massive technological edge over their Chinese competitors for decades. US firms set up manufacturing plants in China merely to cut production costs. Through joint ventures, Chinese enterprises learned and absorbed these advanced technologies.
The game has now completely flipped in several sectors. China is developing the world’s most advanced technologies in fields spanning batteries, solar panels, rare earths, and life sciences. The country is actively deploying plans to monopolize more markets.
The 15-year-old CATL perfectly epitomizes this shift. It introduced a battery delivering a 250-mile range on a sub-10-minute charge, outpacing rivals threefold. These batteries now power massive volumes of Chinese new energy vehicles exported worldwide.
CATL operates over 20 global factories, commanding 40 percent of the EV battery market and 30 percent of energy storage. "Of course if there’s an opportunity in the U.S., we wish to pursue it," said a CATL spokesman.
The US has grown increasingly concerned about China’s rapid progress in critical technologies. Politicians fear this could trap America in a new dependency. The situation draws direct comparisons to past reliance on Middle Eastern oil.
Some politicians argue China established dominance in critical industries like batteries through massive subsidies and industrial policies. They believe Beijing uses this to weaken other nations' industrial bases and expand its influence. US Representative John Moolenaar, Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, echoed this fear. He claimed entrusting critical industries to Chinese companies would be "a grave error".
But the real issue is that refusing to cooperate with China carries its own massive risks. Doing so may cause domestic companies to fall further behind in future competition. Shutting out the world’s most dynamic economy will only slow technological progress.
"For decades now, we’ve been used to a world where the technology and innovation comes out of the West,” said Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. “The tables are turning."
This contradiction is glaringly evident among American businesses. General Motors is attempting to partner with South Korean companies to build a non-Chinese supply chain. Ford has taken a different route by embracing CATL as a vital partner. The automaker licenses CATL technology for domestic US production while carefully dodging political red lines.
The New York Times attributes CATL’s success to sustained, high-intensity research investments. The company boasts 22,000 research and development personnel and over 700 PhDs. This success also stems from China's long-term strategic layout in new energy vehicle industrial policies over the past decade. From subsidies and industrial planning to talent development, China has built a comprehensive scientific and industrial system.
Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, hit the nail on the head this past March. He noted: "They built their science. So this is where we need to become better".
The robotic arms keep spinning at breakneck speed. The days of America leading and China chasing are strictly history. Today, the rivalry is boiling over, with each side wielding its own distinct advantages. Make no mistake: this is no longer a do-or-die, zero-sum clash. The technological race has officially entered a new era.
Mao Paishou
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
Ten years ago, fewer than five trains a day rolled out of China toward Europe. Today, more than 55 depart every 24 hours. The Iron Silk Road has quietly redrawn the trade map of the entire Eurasian continent.
From Barren Platforms to Tens of Thousands of Trains
In June 2016, the China-Europe Railway Express unified its brand and officially launched. The first batch of trains departed simultaneously from eight cities — Chongqing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, and Yiwu among them. That year, a grand total of 1,702 trains hit the rails, averaging fewer than five a day.
Ten years on, the picture is completely different. According to data released by the China State Railway Group on June 19, annual traffic reached 20,022 trains in 2025 — a 10.8-fold increase over a decade, at an average annual growth rate of 31.5%.
By June 10, 2026, the Express had already surpassed 10,000 trains and one million TEUs for the year-to-date period, setting a new historical high for the same period.
On June 22, the whistle sounded at Chongqing's Tuanjiecun Central Station. Train X8013 of the China-Europe Railway Express (Chengdu-Chongqing) — fully loaded with 182 "Made in Chongqing" vehicles — set off for Russia's Vorsino station. The first time an entire train used the new 40-foot, 35-ton general-purpose car containers, sized precisely to fit the railway clearance limits of major countries along the route, enabling seamless integration with rail, road, and maritime transport.
"Made in Chongqing" Cars Reach Europe in Two Weeks
This railway line means far more to China's manufacturing sector than a logistics channel. For Chongqing's auto exporters, the old route forced goods down the Yangtze River to eastern coastal ports — a lengthy and costly detour. The Express cuts that journey to an average of two weeks, delivering cargo straight to the European hinterland.
Yu Qinghua, general manager of overseas marketing for Deepal — the new-energy vehicle brand under Changan Automobile — revealed that the Express provides priority marshaling, shipping, and guaranteed space for new-energy vehicles. Thanks to those advantages, Deepal's overseas orders hit 13,500 units in the first quarter of this year, up 85.4% year-on-year.
The variety of freight has changed beyond recognition. When the service launched in 2016, it primarily carried mobile phones and computers. Today, freight categories have expanded to 53 sectors and over 50,000 types of goods — clothing, footwear, automobile parts, grain, wine, coffee beans, and timber among them.
Total cargo value reached US$67.7 billion (approximately HK$527 billion) in 2025. The Express has become the fast track for "Made in China" products going overseas, and for European agricultural products and chemical raw materials entering China.
Three Maritime Crises, Three Times Stepping Up
Three separate maritime crises have exposed the true strategic value of this steel corridor. In 2021, the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal, briefly paralyzing global shipping and triggering a surge of Express orders. When the Red Sea crisis erupted in 2023, sustained Houthi attacks on commercial vessels pushed European buyers toward land transport.
Then in 2026, Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz during the US-Iran war placed renewed pressure on global energy shipping. Each time, the Express's "all-weather, blockade-proof" characteristics drove the international shipping industry to a deeper recognition of its value as a strategic backup.
Make no mistake: this is no coincidence. It is the result of Beijing's systematic planning over two decades.
A Network Spreading Across Eurasia
Today, 129 cities in China have opened routes for the China-Europe Railway Express, reaching 236 cities in 26 European countries. At the Khorgos railway port in Xinjiang, annual train traffic to Europe and Central Asia skyrocketed from fewer than 400 in 2016 to 9,882 in 2025.
After Urumqi Customs and State Railway jointly implemented the "smart railway port plus local rapid customs clearance" reform, port clearance time for imported goods dropped from two to three days to under 16 hours — a 70% reduction. Processing time for exported goods shrank from six hours to just one hour, an 80% decrease.
Routes connecting Central Asia are expanding, too. In Zhengzhou, a train loaded with 1,700 tons of textiles recently departed for Hairatan, Afghanistan. In Xi'an, the first dedicated rapeseed oil train from Krasnoyarsk arrived on May 2. Sixty-two containers carrying over 1,500 tons of Russian rapeseed oil completed the cross-border direct run in 11 days. Unloading and warehousing took just 1.5 hours — nearly half the time required under traditional models.
Behind every single train lies a restructuring of the entire logistics order across the Eurasian continent. Whoever controls the land routes holds the leverage in the trade contests of the next era.
