Why China will win the global race for complete AI dominance

China will be the world's dominant player in artificial intelligence by 2030. A State Council document, issued in July last year, resolved to position China as the world's pre-eminent practitioner of artificial intelligence (AI) in both research and application within the next 12 years. Governments across the world are rushing to support innovation in AI, but none has published as coherent a plan as China and – more importantly – has the ability to get things done: the Chinese government can implement policy in ways that are impossible in western democracies. Intent, however, is one thing: to paraphrase the boxer Mike Tyson, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. The Chinese not only have a strategy, they have a track record of delivering on large-scale, ambitious projects.