For nearly four decades following President Richard Nixon’s historic 1972 visit to Beijing, American foreign policy toward China operated under a foundational doctrine known as “constructive engagement.” The central thesis of this strategy—often termed the Convergence Hypothesis—was straightforward: by integrating China into the global economic architecture, granting it access to… Read More »The End of the Convergence Illusion: The Strategic Evolution of U.S.-China Policy

The paradox at the heart of America’s high-skilled immigration system is simple: the United States spends enormous effort attracting the world’s best technical talent, then places many of those people in a decades-long immigration queue. The H-1B visa was designed as a temporary bridge for highly skilled workers. But for… Read More »America Recruits the World’s Talent—Then Makes Them Wait

China’s billionaire class is one of the most remarkable products of the country’s economic transformation. In little more than four decades, China moved from an economy in which private enterprise was largely excluded from the formal system to one that has produced hundreds of extraordinarily wealthy entrepreneurs and globally competitive… Read More »China’s Billionaires: Wealth Without Political Sovereignty

Over the past four decades, China and the United States have followed increasingly different economic philosophies. The central divide is not simply state capitalism versus free markets, but what each system has chosen to optimize. China has focused disproportionately on raising the economic floor. The United States has focused disproportionately… Read More »Two Models of Capitalism: Raising the Floor or the Ceiling

The United States and China are conducting two of the largest debt experiments in history. Both carry liabilities measured in the tens of trillions of dollars, yet the more important question is not how much they owe, but what they do with what they borrow. Sovereign debt reflects national priorities.… Read More »The Execution Gap: How America and China Use Debt Differently

America’s enormous GDP creates an impression of overwhelming economic strength. But GDP measures economic activity, not necessarily productive capacity, national resilience, or how livable life is for ordinary people. That distinction matters enormously when comparing the United States with China. The argument is not that America’s service economy is “fake.”… Read More »GDP Is Not the Economy—and It Doesn’t Tell Us How Livable Life Is