The writer is a professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and author of ‘The New China Playbook: Beyond Socialism and Capitalism’

Technological leaps are rarely born in comfort. They are forged in conflict, competition and necessity. From nuclear energy to the space race, and now the unfolding artificial intelligence rivalry between the US and China — innovation accelerates when the stakes are highest. US President Donald Trump’s catastrophic tariff war may inflict serious economic pain on China, but it could also ignite a technological surge — not by design, but by necessity.

Although China’s most urgent economic challenge remains internal, 125 per cent US tariffs give Beijing a clear pretext to act — to stimulate aggressively, subsidise strategically, sharpen its survival instinct and double down on technological supremacy.