The US absolutely dominates the software sector and the internet being a US invention is one of they key reasons for that. The PR switched because the Japanese economy crashed (I suspect the US forced it through threat of hard power) and Japan has had demographic problems preventing it from growing in the traditional line chart way again. The CPC is acutely aware they have the same demographic crisis coming soon and is doing everything they can to avoid it with little success especially since the one child policy has left a huge generational gap and a cultural expectation of single child households in the current child rearing generation. If China can overcome this crisis, they become the mono power of the world, but if they can’t they become one of the major powers in a multipolar world.