> China accidentally built a distributed neural network of manufacturing intelligence where knowledge diffuses horizontally across thousands of agents

I find it difficult to take statements like this seriously.

China has built an incredibly dense manufacturing zone. They've done so by manufacturing more cheaply than other countries do, a key element of which is paying workers less than any European country would be able to do. The rest of what's being described is just what falls into place once you've created that dense, cheap in demand manufacturing zone.