Could China Be the Winner of the Next Industrial Revolution

Abstract

This paper attempts to give a comprehensive picture of China’s current position and prospects for growth in the next industrial revolution, assessing whether the country can emerge as one of the “global winners” of the coming transformation. We provide an overview based on a review of the literature on the main driving megatrends of the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution and present the most important socioeconomic implications affecting China. We progress by analysing China’s current economic situation and growth prospects, reviewing secondary data. We find that to ensure a positive grow path, there is a need to enhance productivity via innovation, and we thus evaluate the innovative capacities of Chinese industry. We conclude that China is already a world leader in various industries based on consumer-focused, efficiency-driven innovation, and while Chinese players have not attained global competitiveness yet in engineering and science-based industries, if the country can follow its current path of development in promoting R&D, with no major systemic disturbances, it is only a matter of time before Chinese players will also emerge as world leaders in high-tech sectors.