Earlier in June this year the UK’s Financial Times carried an in-depth report on how Xi Jinping’s China was betting heavily on what have been described as “strategic emerging industries” – from hi-tech manufacturing to renewables, AI to quantum computing. With more than 900 billion dollars of funds directed towards these technologies considered central to economic competition with the west, the FT reported that the ultimate aim was to produce a new generation of national champions across these strategic technology sectors. The seriousness of this effort and the stiff competition it has spurred might be gauged from the fact that