The Chinese economic miracle is built on cheap and dextrous manual labour. But labour costs are rising sharply, so…

China already imports a huge number of industrial robots, but the country lags far behind competitors in the ratio of robots to workers. In South Korea, for instance, there are 478 robots per 10,000 workers; in Japan the figure is 315; in Germany, 292; in the United States it is 164. In China that number is only 36.

The Chinese government is keen to change this.

You bet they are. But what happens to all the folks who no longer have work? Stay tuned.