There is an interesting article in The Telegraph that cites some western executives who have toured Chinese factories recently. They also quoted a statistic that I think might be the most-important one in the world: China added 295K robots last year, the US added 34,000.Fortescue Metals Group President Andrew Forrest:“I can take you to factories [in China] now, where you’ll basically be alongside a big conveyor and the machines come out of the floor and begin to assemble parts,” he says.“And you’re walking alongside this conveyor, and after about 800, 900 metres, a truck drives out. There are no people – everything is robotic.” Greg Jackson, the boss of British energy supplier Octopus.“We visited a dark factory producing some astronomical number of mobile phones"“The process was so heavily automated that there were no workers on the manufacturing side, just a small number who were there to ensure the plant was working.“You get this sense of a change, where China’s competitiveness has gone from being about government subsidies and low wages to a tremendous number of highly skilled, educated engineers who are innovating like mad.”Ford CEO Jim Farley from July:“It’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen."“Their cost and the quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West."“We are in a global competition with China, and it’s not just EVs. And if we lose this, we do not have a future at Ford.”There is a good chance the battle is already lost This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.