23 Ways You’re Already Living in the Chinese Century

A decade ago, China’s political leaders laid out an ambitious industrial plan: By 2025, they pledged, their country would be a world capital, with the goal of moving from “Chinese speed to Chinese quality, the transformation of Chinese products to Chinese brands.” This is the difference, they wrote, between “Made in China” and “Created in China.”

At WIRED, we never take what the government (ours or anybody else’s) says at face value. Still, as journalists, we respect the ability to hit a deadline. While the president of this country is promising to make America great again as he strips it for parts, Chinese business and political leaders have quietly seized the moment. This is not to say that China’s economy, let alone its repressive totalitarian government, runs perfectly. But today there’s almost no limit to what is created in China, then eagerly consumed by the rest of the world.

WIRED’s reporters have chronicled the transformation in the Made in China newsletter—and now we’re bringing you this special issue. Here are 23 ways China is rewiring the future.

—The Editors

A staggering 200-plus Chinese companies are trying to build humanoid robots. In the US, it’s closer to 16.

• 1. Overview ⌄

• 2. Head ⌄

• 3. Grip ⌄

• 4. Articulation ⌄

• 5. Mobility ⌄

For the past six years at least, the United States and China have been locked in a space race to put people on the moon. The US mission, however, has been a boondoggle from the start. NASA’s leaders settled on a plan of baffling complexity: a single trip to the lunar surface could require 40-plus rocket launches, while China’s mission will have two. Then President Trump pushed thousands of NASA employees to quit; the White House proposed a massive budget cut; and Trump installed a former reality TV star as NASA’s part-time acting chief. If you want a microcosm of the political psychosis gripping Washington, you could do worse. As one former top-ranking NASA official put it, “We did the worst of all worlds. We positioned it as a race without planning to win.” Read more

In 2018, a scientist named He Jiankui revealed that he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies. The Chinese government sent him to prison for three years. Now a free man, He relies on private donors to fund his work at a small independent lab in Beijing. WIRED caught up with him as he tries to reestablish himself as “China’s Frankenstein.”

While the European Union inches its way toward comprehensive AI regulation—and the US pretty much twiddles its thumbs—the Cyberspace Administration of China has worked out a more ad hoc approach to oversight: the algorithm registry.

Any company launching an AI tool with “public opinion properties or social mobilization capabilities” must first show the CAC how the product avoids some 31 categories of risk, from age and gender discrimination to psychological harm to “violating core socialist values.”

Over time, the CAC has inadvertently created the most detailed map of a nation’s AI ecosystem anywhere in the world. WIRED looked inside.

By now, major headlines have caught on to the reality that China’s renewable energy revolution is one of the biggest stories in the world, while Donald Trump’s anti-renewable vision of American energy dominance is a backward sideshow by comparison. But chroniclers of this green tech transformation almost always understate its chaos. At this point, it is far less a tightly managed, top-down creation of state subsidies than a runaway train of competition. The resulting, onrushing utopia is anything but neat. And absolutely no one—least of all some monolithic “China” at the control switch—knows how to deal with its repercussions. Read more

Every year, more Chinese adoptees send off DNA kits, upload photographs, or submit their DNA to the National Reunion Database. As databases grow and social networks interconnect, the chance of reunion grows. Chinese police now use not only DNA analysis but also face recognition to help families reunite. Some adoptees post their story on RedNote, a social media platform similar to TikTok. What once felt like an impossible quest now feels like a movement. For Youxue and thousands of others, every reunion proves that the past is not sealed off forever. Read more

• 1. Li-Ning Shadow Runner 3.0 Sneakers ⌄

• 2. HerBeast Reishi Mushroom Sunscreen SPF50 ⌄

• 3. Huawei FreeClip Open-Ear Wireless Earphones ⌄

• 4. Chagee Ceylon Black Tea Latte ⌄

• 5. To Summer Kunlun Snowmelt Candle ⌄

• 1. Songmont Mini Drippy Roof Bag ⌄

• 2. Meituan Power Bank ⌄

• 3. ZEZE Cat Tree with Scratching Board & Play Structure ⌄

• 4. Lightweight Camping Chair ⌄

• 5. Camel Arctic Sentinel Elite NR99 Paneled 3-in-1 Jacket ⌄

For some Chinese kids as young as 5, a smartwatch from a company called Little Genius has become the center of their social world. They chat and share videos, run and play Ping Pong, and send “likes” to their friends, among countless other activities. The more engaged they are, the higher kids rise in Little Genius’ social rankings—a dynamic that can fuel relentless competition. Some kids or teens have reportedly used bots to juice their numbers, hacked the devices to dox their enemies, and even dated people they’ve met through their watches. Read more