Alex Rubin
I spent ten years at the CIA covering China’s efforts to wage an all-out technology war. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is pouring billions into research, reshaping global supply chains, and using state power to ensure Chinese dominance in semiconductors, AI, and biotech. This isn’t just economic competition—it’s a strategy to make China the world’s technological superpower. Xi’s vision is total: self-sufficiency in food, AI-driven surveillance, and military primacy.
In short—to quote Matt Damon’s character in The Martian—Xi plans to “science the shit” out of China. And if the U.S. doesn’t take more decisive action, it will lose.
To achieve his vision, Xi has ratcheted up state support to the highest possible level. His government is providing direct cash infusions, cheap land and utilities, and other incentives to help them dominate these key markets. Xi is ensuring that China has the people and research capabilities it needs to support his vision—increasing its funding for basic research by more than 10% last year. Meanwhile, he is hurting U.S. companies’ ability to compete and undermining their ability to make revenue and invest in the technologies of the future.
If China is devoting so much time, energy, effort, and money toward achieving this vision of a techno-centric economy, military, and society with an eye toward global power, then the U.S. should be too. The U.S. needs to increase investment across-the-board in critical technologies, from advanced batteries to robots, from autonomous vehicles and LiDAR to novel biotechnology.
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