Shawn P. Creamer
More than two thousand years ago, the Qin Chinese developed a concept to emphasize the relationship of national prosperity to state power and a strong armed forces through the idiom Fuguo Qiangbing, which roughly translates into English as Rich Nation, Strong Army. Meiji Japan adopted this slogan in the 19th Century as its model to guide the transformation of Japanese society and to increase the power of the armed forces and the Empire. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has again adopted this model to build its national power. Instrumental to the Chinese model has been significant investments in infrastructure and a mercantilist approach to supporting their economy. As an example, the Chinese state is planning to add 150 nuclear reactors and up to 300 coal power plants to power its growing economy and are investing more than $169 billion annually in its water infrastructure to support current and future industrial, agricultural and residential needs. The Chinese leadership is laying the foundation for Made in China 2025 and primacy during the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0).
As China has aggressively industrialized, during the last several decades the United States has transitioned to a service-based economy, with decreased support to American manufacturing industries, such as critical mineral mining and refinement, and the production of everything from medical supplies to plastics, to metals and chemicals, to machinery and electronics, etc. As American manufacturing was hollowed out through outsourcing, the nation significantly under-invested in its infrastructure ecosystem: Water (storage, treatment, distribution, and regeneration); Power (generation, storage, transmission and distribution); Transportation (roads, bridges, rail, and ports / waterways); and Communication (operational technology to support advances in information technology, data storage and processing, cyber defense, etc).
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