Silicon Valley vs Suzhou: Designing the modern tech war in a Systemic War

While the Systemic WAR demo focused on Central and Eastern Europe, the full version of the game will cover the entire world between 2008 and 2025. The main actors during this period are the USA (a declining hegemon) and China (a rising superpower).

Through a series of regular posts, we want to share our take on the US-China rivalry. In turn, we want you to let us know in the comments how we should capture this conflict in the game mechanics, specifically within the Grand Strategy layer.

We are kicking things off with tech. While in 2008 China mostly copied Western solutions, by 2025 they have become an independent technological leader, forging a development path distinctly different from the American one. Below, we present a comparison between Silicon Valley and Suzhou, its Chinese counterpart.

How do you think we should reflect China's technological leap in the game mechanics? Should the US start with a massive advantage that China has to close through espionage and copying, or should the game offer alternative development paths for both superpowers? Let us know in the comments what kind of solutions work best in Grand Strategy games in your opinion!

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