The West should take note: China's tech revolution is only just starting

Shenzhen, photographed in November 2010. The city is now home to more than 11 million people. A few months ago, I stumbled across a line in a business title that stopped me in my tracks: at that point, 15 Chinese startups had reached unicorn status that year alone; effectively, 30 per cent of the world's billion-dollar companies were created in China in 2017. The relentless nature of a news cycle dominated by the commotion of Trump and Brexit has served to mask the potent undertow of what is likely to prove the most significant shift of this century – namely, the transfer of global power from the west to China. As political turmoil transpires elsewhere, China is re-shaping the world around trade, economics and technology, placing itself firmly at the centre.