中国正在迅速将其技术领先扩展到自动驾驶汽车和制药领域，其机器人出租车制造成本约为Waymo的三分之一，已经累计行驶了数百万公里，同时该国已成为全球第二大新药开发者。中国制药企业如今提供由西方竞争对手许可使用的产品，并将占全球制药利润约70%的美国市场视为主要目标。

这一激增依托于巨大的规模、廉价资本和密集的制造网络，机器人出租车生产搭载在占主导地位的电动车和激光雷达供应链之上，大量患者则为临床试验提供来源。灵活的监管者在2015年至2018年间将药监机构员工人数增加了四倍，在两年内清理了2万件申请积压，将人体试验审批的平均时间从501天缩短到87天，并帮助本国企业开展了大约全球三分之一的临床试验，而地方官员则已在50多个城市批准机器人出租车试点项目。

残酷的本土价格战、由收入偏低消费者埋单的补贴以及宽松的试点项目，正在锤炼出以低成本取胜、其药品可能造福较贫穷国家、其机器人出租车则在对安全高度警惕的美国之外寻找市场的出口冠军。除非西方经济体在实施有针对性的反倾销和安全措施的同时，放宽移民、增加科研资助、提升监管灵活性并加深一体化，否则就有被掏空的风险，难以匹敌中国在前沿技术扩张上的速度。

China is rapidly extending its tech lead into autonomous vehicles and pharmaceuticals, with robotaxis built at roughly one‑third of Waymo’s cost and already logging millions of kilometres while the country has become the world’s second‑largest developer of new drugs. Chinese pharma now supplies products that Western rivals license, and targets America’s market, which generates about 70% of global pharmaceutical profits.

This surge rests on massive scale, cheap capital and dense manufacturing, as robotaxi production piggybacks on dominant EV and lidar supply chains and armies of patients feed clinical trials. Nimble regulators quadrupled the drug agency’s workforce between 2015 and 2018, cleared a backlog of 20,000 applications in two years, cut average approval times for human trials from 501 to 87 days and helped domestic firms run roughly one‑third of all clinical trials worldwide, while local officials have authorised robotaxi pilots in more than 50 cities.

Ferocious home‑market price wars, subsidies funded by underpaid consumers and permissive pilot schemes are forging low‑cost export champions whose medicines may benefit poorer countries and whose robotaxis seek markets beyond a security‑conscious America. Western economies risk being hollowed out unless they pair targeted anti‑dumping and security measures with more open immigration, greater research funding, regulatory agility and deeper integration so they can match China’s speed in scaling frontier technologies.