“Now you have world-class expertise,” says UBS chief China strategist Thomas Deng. “That’s rich ground, a rich field for the industry to take off.”

iCarbonX’s Meum app aims to use algorithms to analyze swaths of genetic, biological and lifestyle data to create bespoke health and medical plans for users – an emerging field called precision medicine. It will advise users on everything from what to eat based on genomic data to how to ward off a hereditary risk of dementia. Such futuristic-sounding technologies are being invented today with a ‘Made in China’ stamp, as the best Chinese scientists return home after years of study and research in the West, lured by economic opportunity and government incentives.

“You’ve got a lot of private capital that wants to invest and grow precision medicine – and you’ve also have all this talent that’s attracted back from overseas,” says Deng.

Gregory Stephanopoulos, W.H. Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at MIT, says he already sees a nascent healthcare giant: “Based on the progress I have seen in Chinese laboratories over the past 15 years, and publications from Chinese labs, I think China is emerging as the major competitor to the US.”

Founded in 2015, iCarbonX has already attracted more than $600m in investment. It has launched an alliance with seven global tech companies, including some in Silicon Valley. iCarbonX has powerful rivals in the likes of Google and IBM, but also enjoys unique strengths: Wang’s research expertise, strong government support, and crucially, a chance to tap genomic data from China’s billion-strong population. According to UBS Asia-Pacific equity analyst Carl Berrisford, the capacity to garner personal information – increasingly shared via homegrown social media platforms such as WeChat – gives China an opportunity to take the lead in reinventing global healthcare.

“There is potential for a huge genomic database, and it’s something that China is pursuing very aggressively,” says Berrisford. “The larger your database, the more you can learn about preventative screening of illnesses.”