Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush once remarked that, “No nation on Earth has discovered a way to import the world’s goods and services while stopping foreign ideas at the border.”
In an age when democracies dominated the technological frontier, the ideas Bush had in mind were those associated with America’s own model of political economy.
But now that China has become a leading innovator in artificial intelligence, might the same economic integration move countries in the opposite direction? This question is particularly relevant to developing countries, since many are not only institutionally fragile, but also increasingly connected to China via trade, foreign aid, loans and investments.