From a hacker perspective it is incredible. On the other hand, this is all driven by a profoundly illiberal government that has no goals other than its own survival and that's supported by a lot of human misery, some might say slavery. I love using Apple products but it's hard to forget the conditions at places like Foxconn.
Both sides think they are outflanking the other - the West hopes this development will liberalize China and increase respect for IP and rule of law while the Chinese government intends to use this interaction, trade, and adoption of tech to increase their own power. It's a very risky game. It's easy to criticize the US government (and for obvious reasons - this is not a defense of US foreign policy) but Chinese hegemony might be far worse.
As techies how can we create places like this in other more open countries? Can this kind of development not be done locally or in Latin America countries?
Please understand this is not an attack on China, just some (I think) realistic concerns about their government.