James Kynge is a multi award-winning journalist who spent 28 years at the Financial Times, both as Beijing bureau chief and subsequently Global China Editor. Over the past three years, he has reported intensively on China's tech rise and its impact on countries in several parts of the world. His series of 15 podcasts for the FT's Tech Tonic platform boldly sets out the argument that China is winning the tech race with the US in almost all dimensions, with the exception of computer chips. He visits China's "silicon valley" in Shenzhen and talks to the Chinese companies that are driving a tech revolution. He also reports from Bremen in Germany, Lagos in Nigeria, Phoenix in the US, Taipei in Taiwan, Eindhoven in the Netherlands and several other places to conjure the voices behind China's expanding tech footprint. This work forms the basis of a new audiobook, "Global Tech Wars: China's Race to Dominate", to be published in April 2025 by Pushkin Industries.
Kynge is an engaging speaker, with plenty of stories from meetings with the movers, shakers and losers that populate the China tech story. He is an experienced presenter and moderator, having done many talks to all kinds of audiences since the publication of "China Shakes the World", his award-winning 2006 book that traced China's early international impact.