Issue: Unmanned factories, autonomous taxis… This is not China‘s future, but the reality that is happening In January 2025, China‘s artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek released the reasoning model R1, which caused a huge reaction in the global artificial intelligence (AI) market, and the global perception of China‘s AI development also changed accordingly. After that, the Chinese AI industry developed at an astonishing speed. How accurately do we understand the Chinese AI industry? The book “China AI Future Map” that explains the development of the Chinese AI industry was recently officially published.
Since visiting Beijing in 1998, the author Lin Shanying has long followed and documented China‘s complete journey of deepening reform and openness, advancing digital transformation, and participating in global AI competition. Based on many years of field research and research accumulation, Lin Shanying systematically combed through the current state of development of Chinese AI and future trends in “China AI Future Map”.
The book jumps out of a simple technology competition perspective and interprets China‘s AI development from a national strategic level. The entire book analyzes the path of construction of China‘s complete AI ecosystem in six dimensions: policy, talent, capital, technology, infrastructure, and development planning. The book also cites government-related policy documents and technology roadmap, as well as patent data from companies such as Alibaba and Huawei, clearly presenting the institutional foundation and industrial layout of China‘s AI development.
The most eye-catching point in “China AI Future Map” is that it defines Chinese AI as a reality that has already landed, rather than a distant future. “Unmanned factories” operating 24/7, self-driving taxis shuttling through city streets, and intelligent agriculture operated by drones and self-driving tractors have all become reality from science fiction fantasies. Faced with U.S. limitations in the semiconductor field, China has accelerated autonomous technology research and development, while expanding the AI industry layout to areas such as low-orbit satellites, space data centers, and the “Digital Silk Road,” placing AI in an important position to enhance the country‘s competitiveness, and continuously promoting its deep integration with physical economies such as manufacturing.
The author believes that the core competitiveness of China‘s AI is not a single technological breakthrough, but a systematic advantage formed by policy guidance, capital investment, talent cultivation, and manufacturing infrastructure. China is driving AI from a single technology or corporate competitive tool to transform into important projects that reshape industry structures and optimize the way the country is governed. Interpreting China‘s AI from the perspective of national development projects rather than corporate competitiveness is a core feature of this book.
“China AI Future Map” also defines 2026 to 2029 as the “golden window period” for South Korea‘s AI development. It argues that with the continued deepening of the integration of AI and physical economy during China‘s “15th Five” period, South Korea urgently needs to reorient itself in the global AI competition landscape. Should it be passively attached to the two major markets of China and the United States, or become a “bridge” connecting the two major markets? The book argues that this choice will profoundly affect South Korea‘s future industrial competitiveness.
“China AI Future Map” stands on real-world observations and objective data, rejecting subjective and emotional evaluations. It neither blindly exaggerates China‘s AI capabilities nor underestimates its development potential. It provides extremely valuable reference grounds for readers to understand China‘s technology industry strategy and grasp the global technology competition structure. (Author Lian Sheng, translated by Li Zhiyin)