Political scientist Yuriy Tyshkun, associate professor at Lviv Polytechnic University, wrote this in an article for Dzerkalo Tyzhnia.According to him, the key factors behind China’s surge are state subsidies, cheaper labor, and large-scale robotization of industry under AI control.He cites the example of Xiaomi’s “dark factory,” which requires no light or heating because no humans work there. It can produce one smartphone per second — more than 10 million annually, with potential for 31 million.Similar plants in China have already outpaced the combined car production of the U.S. and Japan, offering vehicles one-third cheaper than German or Japanese automakers. This breakthrough happened in just six years, between 2010 and 2016.Since then, China has expanded robotization across electronics and electrical engineering. Today, half of the world’s industrial robots operate in China, and another 275,000 are added each year — the highest figure globally.This massive automation, Tyshkun notes, will secure China the lion’s share of the projected $15 trillion in profits from global robotization by 2030, as well as most of the 97 million high-paying jobs it creates. Other countries, including Ukraine, risk losing their industries and becoming raw-material economies.“In our case, Chinese robots will destroy most industrial firms abroad, including in Ukraine. The only way out is total militarization and investment in the defense industry,” Tyshkun warns.A separate threat comes from China’s AI development. Despite lagging in cutting-edge chips, Beijing is creating energy-efficient models that are systematically being applied in industry, the economy, and society.One example is the DeepSeek chat client, which runs even on weaker processors and could displace costly Western competitors — much as Android overtook Windows in mobile devices.China also has a major edge in the sheer volume of data it collects domestically and abroad through its telecom equipment — data that fuels AI growth.Tyshkun argues that mass unemployment caused by Chinese expansion could destabilize democratic countries. “Eighty-five million unemployed in democratic states will become a battering ram for potential dictators,” he warns, citing the U.S. “Rust Belt,” where joblessness boosted Donald Trump’s popularity.At the same time, Trump’s own policies, Tyshkun believes, weaken America’s position in the tech race. His immigration limits, manipulation of statistics, and state interference in business “make America resemble China, but without its system and strategy.”On July 26, China announced plans to create an organization to promote global cooperation in artificial intelligence — positioning itself as an alternative to the U.S. in the battle for influence over this transformative technology.