How China’s tech prowess could help it overtake India as ‘office of the world’

As Shanghai resident Adam Liu drives his new Mercedes CLA – a German-manufactured car he has long revered – this edition of the luxury vehicle is carrying another point of pride: a smart system hailing from his home country.The recently launched pure-electric vehicle was assembled in Rastatt, Germany, but engineers at Beijing-based ByteDance designed its interactive system, based on the popular chatbot Doubao.“To me, it’s a fusion of German meticulous craftsmanship and China’s smart digital core,” Liu said.While carmakers traditionally procured components in-house or through joint ventures, Liu’s vehicle marked a shift: ByteDance, an external specialist firm, was contracted to deliver a complete, cutting-edge digital service.Researchers said the partnership underscored China’s growing prominence in digital service outsourcing – particularly AI-powered services and research capabilities – and its ambition to challenge India’s long-standing dominance.The “world’s factory” aspires to move up the value chain as a high-end service provider, though it still lags behind India, known as the “office of the world”.That ambition became clear in December, when Beijing pledged to cultivate internationally competitive service outsourcing leaders and upgrade digitalisation and intelligent services by 2030.