James Kynge

  • Financial Times Multi Award-winning Journalist
  • Author of “Global Tech Wars: China’s Race to Dominate”
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PROFILE

James Kynge is a multi-award-winning journalist, author, and China Strategy Fellow. Over a 28-year career at the Financial Times, he served in pivotal roles including Beijing Bureau Chief, Emerging Markets Editor, and Global China Editor, reporting on China's rapid economic takeoff and its expanding geopolitical heft. He spent nearly 20 years living in China, speaks fluent Mandarin, and previously led Pearson Group’s media, publishing, and education businesses in the country between 2006 and 2008. His seminal 2006 book, China Shakes the World, was an award-winning international bestseller translated into 19 languages.

China’s ascent to superpower status in technology is one of the most consequential trends in the world today. Building on his deep background, Kynge explores this theme in his new audiobook, Global Tech Wars: China’s Race to Dominate, published by Pushkin Industries and the Financial Times. To research the project, he travelled across the US, China, Taiwan, Germany, the Netherlands, Nigeria, and other nations to interview the winners and losers behind this world-shaping dynamic.

The insights from this research form the basis for his captivating, up-to-the-minute presentations on China’s technological rise. A central focus of his recent work is addressing whether groundbreaking developments, such as the DeepSeek phenomenon, signal a broader, long-term Chinese lead across artificial intelligence, robotics, and hardware.

As an engaging speaker and moderator, James masterfully conveys the sweeping shifts across technology, geopolitics, economics, and trade, enlivening his deliveries with first-hand stories about the movers, shakers, and industry leaders he has met throughout his career.

TOPICS

CHINA’S TECHNOLOGY POWERHOUSE: AI, SEMICONDUCTORS AND STRATEGIC COMPETITION

Drawing on his analysis of China’s technology ecosystem, he explores China’s ambition to achieve greater self-sufficiency and ultimately global leadership, in AI, semiconductors, robotics and advanced hardware. He examines whether breakthroughs such as DeepSeek signal a more durable shift in Chinese innovation, and unpacks what the US–China technology rivalry means for global business, investment decisions and supply-chain resilience.

THE CHINA DISRUPTION: INDUSTRY, TRADE AND GEOPOLITICAL INFLUENCE

He provides a clear-eyed view of how China’s manufacturing scale, automation drive and rapidly expanding EV sector are reshaping competition across global industries. From the impact on Western manufacturers to the implications of trade tensions, supply-chain diversification and the Belt and Road Initiative, he connects China’s industrial strategy with its broader geopolitical ambitions and influence

CHINA’S ECONOMIC RESET AND ASIA’S NEXT GROWTH FRONTIER

He assesses the fundamental forces redefining China’s economic outlook, including local-government debt, demographic pressure, the evolution of domestic consumption and the need for structural reform. Looking beyond China, he puts these developments in the context of Asia’s emerging markets, explaining how new trade routes, production shifts and regional growth opportunities will affect global companies and investors.

EXPERTISE

  • Fireside Chat
  • Webinar
  • Keynote
  • Boardroom Advisory

VIDEOS

BOOKS

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James Kynge

China Shakes the World

China Shakes the World (2006) details how China transformed into the workshop of the world and the resulting global disruptions. It explores how low labor costs, modern production, and high-volume manufacturing enabled Chinese companies to undercut global competitors and dominate world supply chains. Kynge traces how China's insatiable appetite for raw materials drove up global commodity prices, alongside widespread reverse-engineering and weak intellectual property protections. Crucially, the book highlights internal vulnerabilities, including severe environmental pollution, a bad-loan-burdened banking sector, and growing social inequality, arguing that China's systemic instability presents as much of a global risk as its rapid economic growth.

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