How much do you think it costs to make a pair of Nike shoes in Asia?

Americans need to get over their view of “Asia” as being about making shoes. When I was working in engineering in the early aughts, we mocked the Chinese as being able only to copy American technology. Today, China is competitive with or ahead of America in key technology areas, including nuclear power, AI, EVs, and batteries.

We need to anticipate a future where China is equal to America on a per capita basis, but four times bigger. Is that a world where “Designed by Apple in California, Made in China” still makes sense? What will be America’s competitive edge in that scenario?

What seems most likely to me in the future is that the US will find itself in the same position the UK is in now. Dominating finance and services won’t mean anything when both the IP and the physical products are being produced somewhere else.

This. Anyone who doesn’t believe it — please go spend some time in Shenzhen, Shanghai, or similar cities, like I did. I just got back from China. I’ve been (also lived and worked) to the U.S. many times, and I can confidently say that China’s tier-1 cities are on another level when it comes to development and QoL (and not only T1 cities, I was in smaller regions in the north too). It’s also incredibly clean, super safe, and the infrastructure is breathtaking.

That's been my current dream trip for a little. I think it woukd be so cool to ride the trains around the country and see what it's really like there. Learning the language is hard though

Remember to carry your passport at all times, as you'll need it to buy a train ticket.

Even a simple metro ticket.

You can also smile at the CCTV cameras, which are in groups every 100m or so within cities.

Train tickets sure, for the high speed rail, but metro? Not in Shanghai at least

Metro ticket machines in Beijing won't sell a ticket until you've scanned an identity card.

Tourists must wait at the ticket window. Foreigners aren't usually asked to show the passport unless they look Chinese.

No need to wait at no window. After you activate Alipay, just click on "Transport" and create a metro card for Beijing. Scan code on enter, scan on exit, pay the sweet low fare automatically. One app, 30+ cities.