National Competitiveness

Please join ITIF for an important policy conference on what U.S. policymakers must do to prevent America from suffering a catastrophic defeat in its techno-economic-trade war with China. At stake are vital production capabilities in the advanced, traded-sector industries that provide the foundation for economic strength and national security in the 21st century.

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.

Major agreements, new participants, and key diplomatic and industrial milestones in the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative, which aims to secure global supply chains that underpin AI and other advanced technologies.

From 2020 to 2025, China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) approved 94 novel oncology drugs, surpassing the 87 approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Science and math skills drive innovation and economic growth. However, U.S. students are not performing particularly well, especially when compared with China. Policymakers should view improving achievement in these subjects as key to maintaining the nation’s long-term economic and technological competitiveness.

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.

Assigning an advanced industry to every region will not, by itself, create successful tech hubs. Korea should concentrate resources in promising clusters, revise funding as private investment and customer demand emerge, and improve daily life in waning communities.