China's different road

August 7, 2025

At its most fundamental, the US problem with China is that it has chosen a different road to economic security which the US has finally realised is working better than their model. The US model is untrammelled capitalism with vast expenditures on the military to retain hegemony over the world.

The Chinese system is “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.

In the last 40 years, the wage of the average industrial worker in China has risen 130 times (not 130%). In that same period, the wage of the average US industrial worker has risen about 4 times.

China has also focused laser-like on education of its population. Each year, China graduates 4.5 million STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) students. The US graduates about 400,000. China spends the same on education as the US spends on the military. While the US spends four times more on the miltary than they do on education. China spends four times as much on education as they do on the military.

Not hard to guess who is winning the economic competition in a science- and technology-driven world. That is what some policymakers in the US have finally figured out!