Hong Kong ( CNN ) -- When architect James Law looks in the mirror each morning his reflection is not all that greets him -- he can also see the weather report , e-mail messages and his heart rate . `` The biggest game changer of the past 25 years has been the Internet , '' said Law , whose Cybertecture Mirror is an offshoot of his Hong Kong architectural firm 's focus on integrating technology in design . `` In buildings , the Internet has become ubiquitous but it has n't caught up in the products that inhabit buildings -- chairs , doors , tables and mirrors . '' Law 's company -- and a raft of new government-funded projects in mainland China -- is looking to change that . Law 's $ 5,000 mirror began as product his firm designed for a high-tech residential building in Dubai . `` The Internet of Things began to become more real for us as a project , '' Law said . `` We started to take these things out of our building designs to make them independent products , and try to impregnate them with as much technology as we can . '' If there 's a race to lead the Internet of Things ( IoT ) , China aims to set the pace . Since Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao identified IoT as an `` emerging strategic industry '' in an interview on state media , Beijing has focused on developing technology by which devices can communicate via infrared sensor , Radio Frequency Identification ( RFID ) and other Machine-to-Machine ( M2M ) technology . Beijing plans to invest 5 billion yuan ( $ 800 million ) in the IoT industry by 2015 . The Ministry of Information and Technology estimates China 's IoT market will hit 500 billion yuan ( $ 80.3 billion ) by 2015 , then double to 1 trillion yuan ( $ 166 billion ) by 2020 . The government has established state-owned enterprise zones such as the Chengdu Internet of Things Technology Institute in Sichuan province , which is developing a health care system in which rural villagers can step into a telephone booth-sized `` health capsule '' to get a diagnosis and prescription from a doctor in a distant hospital . `` With the capsules and clinics , people do low-cost checkups and choose an online doctor for further diagnosis , then print prescription and purchase medicine from the capsule , '' boasts the program 's web site . The larger goal of China 's focus in IoT , analysts say , is to win a fight Beijing has long been losing -- setting international standards for new technology . After leading losing fights to use Chinese standards in 3G technology and wireless mobile standards , China is trying to get out front early on IoT . `` In technology China has come from a position of follower , adopting foreign standards on which it has to pay royalties , '' said Mark Natkin , director of Marbridge , a technology consulting firm in Beijing . `` China is very interested in turning that model around , and create the standards by which other countries are paying it royalties , '' he said . `` It 's a new area , and as such , a place where China can be at the starting line or ahead of the starting line . '' Law sees three other factors at play in China 's IoT thrust . `` China is in a position to invest more than other economies in the world at this period of time , '' Law said . `` And China still has a internalized , walled Internet because it 's trying to monitor , control and censor -- so it 's in its own interest to develop these kind of products . `` But I think the third thing is China has matured to a point where it is no longer a low cost center of labor ... in cutting edge businesses , it wants to really develop its own brand and its own next generation of technology , to walk into the fight with your own swords by investing in the next Google , the next Apple , '' Law said . `` From a state perspective , there is everything to gain in nurturing their own brands ... the country wants to define the market rather than play catch-up , '' Law added . Law 's company has sold 500 of the Cybertecture Mirrors and is now developing a chair that recognizes the user and records individual health data . `` I really feel that the next paradigm for product design will be changed by the Internet and the new range of materials we now have , '' he said . `` We should n't be building things in the same way as the past . ''
The Internet of Things market in China is expected to hit $ 800 million in 2015 . Beijing has earmarked $ 80.3 billion for IoT investment by 2020 . China has created state-funded zones like CNN . China aims to become a global leader in setting IoT global standards .