The words ‘technology’ and ‘innovation’ are almost automatically linked with American companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Tesla or Amazon in most people’s minds. But this association has created a huge blind spot in the West.

While the world focuses on what is happening in Silicon Valley, the Chinese innovation train has left the station and is moving forward at high speed. Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are the well-known standard-bearers of this fast and furious innovation surge, but they are just the tip of the iceberg.

Pascal Coppens guides the reader through eight key industries. He shows how China is creating a ‘New Normal’ in each of these industries, with vivid stories and examples that often sound like science fiction. The common theme is how China is leveraging its unique strengths to assume a leading position as innovator with the development and implementation of artificial intelligence and other key technologies of the future.

China’s New Normal offers fascinating insights into the new China and its potential impact on the rest of the world. It is essential reading for anyone who is involved with the process of disruption, because in the years ahead China will increasingly be the source of innovations and disruptive trends that will touch all of our lives.

PASCAL COPPENS is a Sinologist and technology entrepreneur. He has lived and worked for more than 20 years in China and Silicon Valley. He is a partner of nexxworks and international keynote speaker, sharing his insights about innovation in China.