
The US fears China’s tech rise, but China thinks it’s too far behind the US
Chinese media and netizens ponder tech gap with the US
How times have changed.
ZTE says it can't fix a toilet without violating sanctions
But the speed of its rise has often masked the fact the foundations on which China’s industry is built on lags behind the rest of the world. As the ZTE saga so plainly revealed, there’s simply no homegrown Chinese chip industry to match those outside the country.
China’s technological rise is not happening at the expense of the West; it’s being powered by it.

On social media, people are rallying around calls for China to stop tooting its own horn. As the Global Times noted, one powerful voice comes from the editor-in-chief of the renowned Science and Technology Daily.
For all we hear about how dependent China's people are on their smartphones, only around half of the population owns a smartphone -- a lower portion than in the US, the UK or South Korea. And China’s ambitious space program has yet to reach Mars, some 20 years after NASA’s Sojourner Rover landed on the Red Planet.
As China reflects on where it stands, American experts and tech leaders seem to have a more definite answer.
Americans are creeped out by Amazon’s facial recognition tool -- but China is embracing the technology
Others agree China should talk less and act more.
One wrote, “South Korea was developing at the same time as China, but we don’t see them bragging around all day long.”
Another popular comment: “Bragging is no good. Stay grounded. Don’t be arrogant.”
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