Most of the world's information on the Internet and scientific knowledge are in written English. Growth, innovation, and international affairs will continue to rely on science and technology—much of which are recorded and discussed in English.
The argument
English is the language of technology and scientific knowledge, and the claim is that this position is held in place by the work itself rather than by the number of native speakers. Computer scientists especially have no choice but to learn English since much of the leading scientific papers in current topics such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing are in English. A researcher who cannot read that literature cannot work at the front of the field, whatever language they would prefer. The dependence runs deeper than reading. The top 10 programming languages in the world are English-based, so the vocabulary of the work is English before any paper is written. And the material available to learn from sits overwhelmingly in one language: 59.7% of the world's online content is in English, while Mandarin Chinese only takes up 1.5% of online content. Scientists agree that to facilitate better communication in the scientific world, English should be used (even if this fact is unfair to other languages) — a common language is worth more than the sum of its speakers, because its value lies in everyone converging on the same one. The same logic applies commercially. English is the language of international business. While local business sectors may not use English, international sectors certainly do, and some in the business sector encourage English-only use for better productivity. The last step is a calculation firms actually face. Since an estimated 1 in every 4 people around the world can use English at a productive level, it is better for companies to bolster its employees' English language abilities than invest in Mandarin language training — the starting point is higher and the reach is wider. Each such decision adds to the incumbency.
Premises
Counter-arguments
China is increasing its scientific research. In 2018, China's total number of scientific publications surpassed the US's, according to statistics from the US National Science Foundation (NSF). Important AI-related publications are translated into Mandarin Chinese more quickly than Chinese AI developments are translated into English. As China's economic and scientific advances grow, so will the need to learn Mandarin.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] The figures describe the present while the position claims something about the future — current dominance is what a challenger would have to overcome, not evidence that none can. The online-content share is also a much-repeated figure whose method is contested, and it counts pages rather than users or communication. [Rejecting P2] Efficiency arguments explain why firms invest in English now and would apply equally to whichever language carried the largest market, so the premise identifies a mechanism that could just as well run the other way. The counter supplies the change the argument would need to answer: publication volume rising elsewhere, with translation flowing asymmetrically.