China for many years has depended upon the Western world for much of their sophisticated and technological feats – China simply did not possess the infrastructure or technological know-how to manufacturer such things. Almost the entirety of China’s commercial aircraft fleet consist of American-manufactured Boeings. Up until now, mobile phone giants Apple, Samsung and Sony have dominated the Chinese market. It is only recently however that these giants in both the airlines industry and mobile phone industry have begun surreptitiously watching their backs as a new wave of Chinese home-bred companies, manufacturing their own in-house and often superior replacements step into the spotlight. Could this be our queue to begin learning Chinese?

Thus far, China have faced extremely big problems in bringing domestically produced aircraft to market, consequently forcing them to spend billions on foreign manufactured aircraft. This vast nation simply have not been able to manufacture aircrafts to a sufficient specification to allow it to compete in the global market. In June this year, an order was placed for a staggering $8 billion worth of Boeing aircraft, one of the largest single orders Boeing has ever received. China Eastern Airlines alone,  “committed” to purchase 80 737s, 60 of those being 737 ‘Max aircraft’, which Boeing called China’s “largest-ever” purchase for single aisle aircraft (Read more). Just last week however, China’s first commercial passenger jet received a globally recognized airworthiness certification, an obstacle many other Chinese manufactured aircrafts have failed to do in the past. It has undertaken test flights exceeding 5000 hours, many of which were completed in sub-zero temperatures, and has also already received large orders from Chengdu Airlines. Could this be the beginning of the end for China’s reliance upon foreign aircraft manufactures, and if so, the onset of the Western world learning Chinese.

Xiaomi is a Chinese start-up smart phone manufacturer that has taken the Chinese domestic market by a storm. In just 4 years since its start-up this fast-growing enterprise has raised $1.2 Billion in venture capital funding making it the highest valuing technological start-up ever. This year Xiaomi states that they will easily meet their goal of selling 60 million phones, increasing that to 100 million the year after. Now that the domestic market has been conquered, they are venturing into the global market which is quite frankly causing the likes of Samsung, Sony and Apple to quake in their boots. Xiaomi have a great advantage in that they produce their phones with high-end specs, but sell them at mid-range prices – unlike the current smart phone giants Apple and Samsung, who produce with high-end specs but sell at high range prices! Xiaomi haven’t quite yet been able to achieve the quite superior quality of the iPhone, but they beat Apple on their prices hands down – My guess is this won’t be the case for long.

The two case studies of aircrafts and smartphones are just two examples out of hundreds, where products produced domestically in China are well on their way to manufacturing at equivalent or superior quality to their Western competitors. It’s simply just a matter of time. As this becomes true and China bring more and more products to the global market, this vast nation is only going to grow in power and dominance whilst its dependence upon the rest of the world diminishes. In a decade’s time, English being the main business language of the world could potentially no longer be the case as Chinese steps in to the spotlight and foreign companies begin buying Chinese made aircraft, smartphones and so on.We recommend learning Chinese People, and learning it quick…China is well on its way to taking over the world.