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
Ranked: Which G20 Countries Rely Most on the U.S. for Exports? Key Takeaways The U.S. absorbs 18% of the average G20 economy’s exports. Canada and Mexico each ship roughly three-quarters of their goods exports to the U.S. Just 0.9% of Russia’s exports go to the U.S., the lowest share among… Read More »Which G20 Countries Rely Most on the U.S. for Exports?
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
China’s dominance over global supply chains is rooted not in end-product assembly, but in midstream chemical refining, component production, and foundational manufacturing tools. Through decades of deliberate industrial strategy (Made in China 2025 and its successor frameworks), Beijing identified and captured key chokepoints across the primary sectors driving the modern… Read More »China’s Dominance Over Global Supply Chains
“Chinamaxing” began as a playful social-media term describing the adoption of Chinese lifestyle practices—drinking hot water, wearing slippers, trying Chinese beauty routines, food, and consumer products. But the term has evolved into something much broader: the growing fascination with, adoption of, or preference for Chinese products, technology, infrastructure, urban development,… Read More »Chinamaxing: When China’s Rise Becomes an Everyday Experience
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
For decades, America made a powerful but ultimately flawed assumption: it could dominate the technologies of the future without maintaining the industrial capacity to build them. The strategy seemed logical. Keep the research laboratories, universities, software companies, patents, venture capital and corporate headquarters in America. Move manufacturing overseas to reduce… Read More »You Can’t Win the Technology Race Without the Factory
The United States does not lack a China strategy. It lacks something more important: a clear theory of victory. Washington has assembled an impressive collection of policies aimed at countering China: semiconductor subsidies, export controls, investment restrictions, tariffs, military alliances, and partnerships with Japan, India, Australia and other nations. Together,… Read More »America Has a China Strategy. But Does It Have a Strategy to Win?
The question “Is America still number one?” increasingly produces a more complicated answer than it did a generation ago. A growing share of Americans no longer equate national power with national superiority. They recognize that the United States remains extraordinarily powerful while also acknowledging that other countries outperform it in… Read More »Is the U.S. Still Number One?