Publications: Robert D. Atkinson

How China’s systematic campaign to dominate strategically important industries threatens America’s technological leadership, economic strength, and national security—and what U.S. policymakers should do about it.

The most important techno-economic policy issue America faces is how its economic system should operate and be governed. The answer is neither market capitalism nor societal capitalism nor socialism. Only national economic power capitalism can provide the framework necessary to avoid losing the techno-economic war to China.

The West must once again embrace technological progress and mount a robust intellectual attack on the forces of stasis. The alternative is decline.

Viable industries injured by predatory PRC competition need renewal, not a merciful death. That will require sector-specific strategies and people who know how to build them.

The U.S. government lacks adequate capabilities to conduct the kind of techno-economic industrial analysis that is necessary to avoid losing to China, nor is it organized to formulate and manage industrial and competitiveness strategies, policies, and programs in an enterprise-wide way. Policymakers must address these gaps to mobilize America’s economic power industries.

AI investment is booming, but manufacturing output is stagnant. America needs industrial policy to restore manufacturing and reduce dependence on China.

China embraces innovation. America gets in its own way. Conflicting rulebooks and resistance to technological adoption are helping China win and America lose.

Our brains are wired to react to uncertainty with fear before reason catches up. However, giving in to techno-doom panics is bad for humanity.

Japan was a competitor inside the U.S. alliance system. China is a rival trying to replace it. Waiting for China to repeat Japan’s slowdown is not a strategy.

The West held the ladder for the PRC, which is now trying to kick its competitors off the summit. If the United States wants any hope of regaining the top, it must start kicking away the PRC’s ladder by countering its unfair trade practices while building its own with a bold, robust national advanced industry strategy.