This is an I-Heart podcast.

I'm journalist James King, and I'm in your feed today to bring you an excerpt of my new

audiobook, Global Tech Wars, a gripping analysis of

China's rapid technological ascent. After decades of economic growth symbolized by low-cost

manufacturing, China is now leading in cutting-edge industries, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles,

surveillance technology, robotics and more. And Western corporations are struggling to keep pace.

What does this mean for the future? Will China's technological leadership translate into geopolitical dominance?

Listen to an excerpt of the audiobook, and if you'd like to hear more,

find global tech wars from Pushkin Industries and the Financial Times at Pushkin.fm slash audiobooks,

audible, Spotify, or wherever you get your audiobooks.

Chapter 1, Shunjun Speed

In the heart of Shunhen, a city in southern China is the district of Hua Chiang Bay,

and it's home to the biggest electronics market in the world.

It's a vast warren of stalls selling every kind of electronic component under the sun.

So we're standing in the middle of one of the Huachangbei electronics markets

and the scene is really quite impressive.

It's basically one stall after another.

There's hundreds of stalls here.

I mean, there's just piles of electronic components on top of each other in a very heggledy, piggledy way.

It looks like a rather eccentric hardware shop

where you know that you're selling everything,

but you're not quite sure where

...