Western executives who visit China are coming back terrified

Press quote (The Telegraph)
12 October 2025

Sander Tordoir, the chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, a think tank, says Europe and Britain must try to boost their own deployment of robotics if they want to keep up with the pace of innovation in China – while also keeping their manufacturing industries alive.

“Robotics, if deployed well, can lift the productivity of your economy greatly. And if China is extremely good at it, then we should try to catch up because, like China, a lot of Europe is ageing,” he says.

“The second reason to care is because the robotics sector is high value and has spillovers for the military industrial sector, so the fact that China may be ahead is also significant from a security standpoint.

“I think the debate is about how to use industrial policy to build competitive markets, and that will inevitably include some support to offset China’s distortions and advantages, which are not all market-driven.”