The question has often surfaced: What makes China's technological advancement superior to many other countries? A long time back, China already opened a front and initiated a campaign to take its place as the world's most powerful economy. To date, China continues on an unrelenting path to attain the much-desired high-tech dominance.

Today, the People's Republic of China flaunts all the confidence of a country that has gradually overcome its midlife economic crisis. Interestingly, China was virtually unaffected by the world's most recent financial crises. Soon, pundits expect China to reclaim a coveted spot among the world's preeminent economies. While China's days of double-digit economic growth passed, the country's economy expanded significantly, reaching 9%; from 2008 to 2010.

Also, in 2010 China overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy. Soon, China is expected to shove away the US and claim its place as the world's biggest manufacturer. This reminds us that China held this spot for more than 1,500 years, up until 1850. At this time, Britain overtook China and assumed this leadership during the industrial revolution.

Notably, when this passed by almost unnoticed, China (very quietly and deliberately) moved towards a new development stage. The country moved from a booming low and middle-income economy to become a sophisticated high-tech economy. China did this by co-opting, coercing and cajoling Western and Japanese businesses. The Chinese government also plans to increase the nation's R&D expenditures from 1.7%; of GDP right up to 2.5%; by 2020. In the US, the figure is currently 2.7%;. And just like some Western governments, China is currently funding many mega projects in several sunrise areas, including new generation nuclear reactors, quantum physics, nanotechnology, water purification and clean energy.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is now forcing multinational companies to share technological resources with specific state-owned enterprises; they consider this a requirement to operate in the country. This situation is triggering tension between Beijing and many companies and foreign governments. It also raises the issue of whether China's brand of socialism can coexist with Western capitalism.

Studies show that the Chinese government has-since 2006- been working to implement policies that seek to transfer technology from many multinationals operating in technology-based industries (including power generation, air transportation, information technology, high-speed rail and electric automobiles). The government-imposed rules generally limit the foreign companies' investment; they also limit the companies' access to Chinese markets by stipulating that there must be a high degree of locally produced content in their equipment.

All these regulations are designed to transfer technological knowledge and skills from the companies to China's state-owned enterprises. Indeed, the new government regulations are both unpredictable and complex. The rules are an apparent reversal of several decades of granting these companies much access to Chinese markets. Thus, the companies' CEOs are put in a big dilemma- they can choose to comply with the rules requiring them to share technical knowledge with Chinese competitors; they can decline and miss an opportunity to share the world's fastest-growing single market.

Unsurprisingly, the unorthodox strategy used by the Chinese government has already provoked disputes between the government and foreign companies. Some companies were forced to review their internal strategy. For instance, many companies have been working out how to minimise competitive and security risks that threaten their technologies. Other companies try to determine in advance the innovations they are required to develop in China to gain advantage in this fast-changing, large global marketplace.

Think of it: In 2009, through its Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese government announced that all new technologies utilized in products sold to the (Chinese) government must be developed in China. This rule practically forced many companies to relocate more of their research and development activities to China- unfortunately, China has a notorious record as a country where intellectual properties are pretty unsafe. The Ministry finally backed down from this repressive policy after much protest from multinational companies and governments. But the Chinese authorities did not stop there- they created new regulations that sought to compel multinational companies to relocate most of their sophisticated projects and facilities to China. Of course, the Chinese hoped such policies would help them catch up with the technological pace of the world's leading economies like the US. Will the Chinese government succeed?

The continued efforts by China to expand the end device ecosystem and build modern network connections have triggered the rapid growth of 5G technology throughout the country. Unsurprisingly, this has created new opportunities marked by the commercial use of telecom technology.

According to industry experts, 5G technology constitutes the key information structures that facilitates the general interconnection of things. It's the primary driving force for the progressive digital transformation of both society and the economy.

In 2020 China made remarkable progress in 5G development and applications in the course of designing new infrastructure. This term refers to the latest digital technologies, assets and associated physical facilities and installations like the 5G networks, artificial intelligence applications, industrial internet and big data centres. Undoubtedly, the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on the national economy and the larger society called for faster development of new businesses, including the crucial 5G infrastructure.

According to Lyu Tingjie (who is the China Information Economics Association's vice president) said that China is now entering a modern digital age transformation. The CIEA is a research institute based in Beijing. According to tp Lyu Tingjie, China will use its 5G commercial networks and technology and strive to integrate it into far reaching sectors. The Vice President cited the Chinese government's concerted efforts to fast track the designing of new infrastructure. She expressed her profound conviction, characterized by the belief that new growth opportunities are bound to emerge faster in 20 years.

Further, Lyu Tingjie said that China's superfast 5G technology will likely provide coverage areas featuring high data speeds that can be 100 times than what previously existed; this is a virtually instantaneous response time. In this 5G era, there's much lower latency and higher reliability potential to be realized. This is bound to make the internet of things far more effective; indeed, it's likely to allow the introduction of new autonomous cars a definite reality.

According to Lyu Tingjie, China is also likely to experience a great digital transformation era characterized by such things as the 5G-enabled internet of vehicles, the industrial internet and the internet f things. The executive says that the new transformation will result in further growth opportunities that will benefit many small and medium-sized businesses. She notes that these are the entities that can explore the modern 5G applications in many vertical industries.

A veteran analyst, Zhou Xibing, who closely tracks 5G technologies, also said that 5G technology is likely to impact the current digital transformation; it's likely to influence the upgrade of most traditional enterprises. Zhou says: There's a possibility that 5G technology will uniquely combine with AI as well as the internet of things; this might boost the rapid development of online education, smart logistics, unmanned vehicles and virtual reality games. These will further enhance the competitiveness of most Chinese enterprises, allowing them to have a more significant influence in the global supply chain.

Furthermore, other officials have added their voice on this subject. China's Vice-minister of information technology and industry, Liu Liehong, recently said this: China has now taken a global lead in the fields of 5G standalone networks, innovations, applications and industrial capabilities. Data from Mr Liu's Ministry shows that by March 2021, China had already built over 819,000 5G base stations; these account for over 70%; of the current global total. Indeed, some 280 million users of mobile devices have already joined the 5G network. Again, this represents more than 80%; of the global total. At the same time, China's standard 5G essential patent declarations now represent over 38%; of the world's total.

Mr Liu also noted the huge potential for growth in the 5G development sector; he said this would not just boost the development of China's digital industrialization. Instead, Mr Liu said it would go further to promote the nation's industrial digitalization effectively. Interestingly, China is expected to spend a total of 1.2 trillion yuan ($186.6 billion) on constructing a 5G network by 2025. The country will pump in more than 2.93 trillion yuan on added economic value and 8 trillion yuan on information consumption.

A recently published Chinese Academy of Information's new white paper showed that 5G technology already generated some$ 810.9 billion yuan (linked to China's 2020 direct economic output). This also created 189.7 billion yuan on added economic value.

The Vision AVTR (Advanced Vehicle Transformation) is a concept vehicle inspired by the American Sci-fi movie Avatar. The Mercedes team developed the car in conjunction with the Avatar team. This is not the first vehicle inspired by a movie. Back in November 2019, Elon Musk unveiled a Tesla Cybertruck, partly inspired by a 1977 James Bond’s movie 'The Spy Who Loved Me.' Mercedes AVTR is not available for purchase right now as it represents the Mercedes vision of future automobiles in the distant future. Alexander Mankowsky, the futurologist at Mercedez Benz, hinted that the car may never be built as a production car and is only a teaser of what to expect in the future.

This amazing concept car was first showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show, which was held between 7th and 10th January 2020. Mercedes-Benz AVTR is an emission-free electric car that has mind-blowing features. The rear end has 33 discrete scales called 'bionic flaps' that can be used to communicate with other people that aren't in the vehicle. The flaps also work to support handling of the car, and the color illumination change when taking a bend or braking. In addition, the bionic flaps can work as solar plates and power the vehicle. It has spherical wheels that allow it to drive forward, sideways, or diagonal with torque vectoring.

An amazing feature of this car is that it is completely autonomous and lacks a steering wheel. The car is built to connect with human beings just like in the movie Avatar by adapting the forms of natural aesthetics and overcoming the language barrier between humans and machines. Daimler Group chairman suggested the objective of the car is to make man and machine literally merge. The Vision AVTR can detect and adapt automatically when passengers are moving in the car or when a family is on board. Hence, children referred to as ‘inmates’ won’t get bored thanks to the ‘Child-friendly augmented reality experience.’ Children can enjoy age-appropriate educational games installed in the vehicle.

Developing this future-oriented automobile took two years with the help of Avatar's film director James Cameron. According to the manufacturers, the vehicle is powered by organic battery cells, not requiring rare earth minerals. The battery is recyclable and has a vehicle to grid technology. Also, the interior of the car has no unobtainium (a fictional, highly valuable mineral from the movie Avatar). In short, the interior is not made up of rare minerals but vegan leather and recycled plastics. The floor is made of fast-growing Karuun wood, grown and harvested in Indonesia. As a result, the interior receives much-needed warmth and a sense of naturalness, as claimed by the automaker. This is to achieve Mercedes's long term goal of reducing carbon emission; hence it is made of 100% recyclable elements.

The interior design is incredible, just like the exterior design. The doors open upward while the roof has partially transparent panels that keep changing their colors. By adapting to the natural aesthetics and use of augmented reality experience, the car seats can transmit vibrations to achieve some sort of excitement for the occupants. Moreover, to keep the occupants more relaxed, it has a 3D 360-degree sound system that can play/mimic the sound heard outside the car, such as bird songs. This, according to the manufacturer, is to strengthen the bond between human beings and nature. The seats are designed to be curvy to display the visual connection between the occupants and the outside environment.

The driverless car replaces the steering wheel with a biometric control that allows for activation of the vehicle using a handprint. This biometric control serves to connect the driver and the car. Additionally, it can sense the heartbeat and breathing pace of the driver. Also, it connects seamlessly with the other passengers in the vehicle. This is exhibited when someone raises their hand in the car a menu like image will be projected on their palms. Also, the dashboard has 3D graphics of what is ahead and displays other existing natural wonders of the earth.

The car is extremely powerful, and its engine runs on 350 kilowatts and up to 469 horsepower. The 110-kilowatt hour battery gives the vehicle a range of over 435 miles (700 km). Without a doubt, Mercedez-Benz Vision AVTR is a good representation of tomorrow’s technology and futuristic cars.

Sorry we're not going to give you COVID-19 Travel advice. There's too many different rules per country that's getting tiresome already ... We are looking at different kind of Travel advice. A Virtual Private Network is a method used to encrypt a user's data and adds a layer of privacy that protects the user's identity. Over the years, using a VPN has proved to be one of the most secure ways of keeping users' data private while surfing the internet. In the recent past, VPNs were only used in the business sector, organizations to secure their data. Nowadays, many individuals and corporations use VPNs to increase their internet security. VPNs protect all the traffic sent in a Network and ensure no data is lost. They do that by replacing the user's initial IP address with an IP address from a VPN provider in a gateway city.

Users who browse the internet without the use of a VPN are prone to many risks, and their internet security may be easily compromised. Firstly, their data can be easily breached through WiFi spoofing or Firesheep, hence no data privacy. Also, they are more prone to lose their data compared to a VPN user. Secondly, the location of users who don't use VPNs can be easily exposed. This is because their computer's or device Internet Protocol (IP) address is visible to the sites they visit. Thirdly, it is easier for hackers to intercept information sent from an internet user who does not use a VPN. As a result, crucial data such as bank information, PIN, or passwords may be accessed by a hacker.

VPNs work by sending the users traffic to an encrypted tunnel and gives the user a different IP address so that their real IP address is not exposed to the websites they're visiting. Such that users can choose their gateway city or country of origin for their connection. As a result, users can access sites that are prohibited in their home countries as long as they have a VPN running. Also, it encrypts a user's data transfer by encapsulating all their online transfers. Users can ensure their internet connection is secure by conducting integrity checks to make sure their data is not lost. Also, connecting your device with a VPN is very easy as it only requires an internet connection to initiate a connection using the VPN software you've installed.

But are users truly secure and anonymous using VPNs? Without a doubt, VPNs work to protect the confidentiality and data integrity of their users. However, there are a few facts on the usage of VPNs that users don't know. Firstly, Virtual Private Networks often tell their customers that they keep no logs of their online activity. However, there's no absolute evidence to prove they don't keep them. This is because VPN providers can still access their users' traffic, logs, and browser history. Given that nothing or no one can prevent them from viewing or keeping your network logs or browser history. Even if they say they don't store users' logs, users can't be certain they don't. The only thing that users can be sure of is that credible VPN providers won't share their data or online activity with any third parties such as governments.

Another fact that VPN users don't know is that they are not completely anonymous, and they can still be tracked. This is made possible if a user initiates a VPN connection using a local Internet service provider, the ISP provider can track the user by the nearest cell tower used to connect to the internet. Also, the user's geographical location can still be known if the user allows web mapping services such as Google Maps to run on the background while using a VPN. Moreover, some VPN providers run Google tracking services or analytics on their websites, which makes it easy for Google to track the geo-location of the user. Additionally, there advanced web trackers and advertising IDs used by multinational technology companies that can bypass VPNs and still track the VPN user. Many websites can get access this unique ID when you visit them.

Using a VPN can hide your IP address but won't hide your unique ID, especially on smartphones running Android or the iOS operating system. This is because users first signed up with the companies before using their devices to connect to a VPN. VPNs are not hack-proof, but it is extremely difficult to hack a VPN successfully. All in all, using VPNs remains to be the most effective method of keeping your data secure and maintaining online privacy.