Description

The Western perception of China as a mere "copier" of technology is dangerously outdated and fails to recognize its emergence as a formidable innovator. Robert D. Atkinson, for the Innovation Technology & Innovation Foundation presents evidence that China has achieved or is nearing leadership in several key advanced industries, such as commercial nuclear power and electric vehicles, and is rapidly closing the gap in others including robotics, AI, and biopharmaceuticals. He attributes this progress to a deliberate, state-driven strategy by the Chinese Communist Party aimed at dominating global high-tech markets. The central threat identified is China’s ability to combine its traditional low-cost manufacturing base and immense scale with a new, world-class innovation capacity, which could fundamentally displace Western companies and shift the center of global economic power.

Robert D. Atkinson contrasts China's strategic, goal-oriented system with the West's, particularly America's, more hands-off, market-driven approach, which it argues is ill-equipped for this new era of "techno-economic war." To effectively compete, he advocates for the United States to abandon its traditional economic doctrines and adopt a new framework called "national power capitalism."