How Technology Might Reshape China's Future

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Gene-editing techniques like CRISPR and other technologies, including cloning, would make a significant mark on Chinese agricultural and livestock production. For Beijing, such technological advances are the key to its own security and to winning its competition with the West.

Three years ago, most of the world thought "CRISPR" was the name of a refrigerator drawer. Now, the revolutionary gene-editing technique is not only used by researchers the world over but is also widely discussed by the mainstream media. For Stratfor, technologies like CRISPR are exciting because they could help countries overcome the geopolitical constraints stalling their development . We create technologies to meet specific human needs, and these advances constantly interact with geopolitics. Nations' particular political, economic and social realities dictate, at least in part, when, where and how technologies develop. In turn, these technologies profoundly affect the developmental cycles of nations. A Behemoth in Need of Better Technology Consider China. It is in the midst of undertaking the immense challenge of trying to restructure its economy after 30 years of uninhibited, unsynchronized growth.