China targets an economic future that allows it thrive despite US competition

In the middle of a vast warehouse in Xiangyang, a city of five million people in China's central Hubei province, men and women in red, zip-up jackets were packing bottles of imported cosmetics into brown, cardboard boxes. The packages would soon be among the millions delivered throughout China each day in what has become the world's biggest ecommerce market. As they sealed each box with sticky tape and attached labels by hand, theirs appeared to be the only function in the Cainiao Cross-Border Central Warehouse that was not automated. Warehousing, shelving, sorting and shipping are all conducted by robots in…