Don't Worry, Be Smug About China Because The Future Is American

[erronis]

https://americaunbound.substack.com/p/dont-worry-be-smug-about-china-because
Narain Batra

After President Donald Trump's friendly and deferential visit with China's Xi Jinping, Matthew Hennessey, a Wall Street Journal editor, wrote a column alerting us about the false "Red Scare." The argument, stripped to its bones, was this: America is great, China ain't, and you should stop worrying. Hennessey's article, confident and sharply written, is a near-perfect specimen of American triumphalist thinking. But when you hold it up against the actual data, it's deeply misleading.

His argument makes us feel comfortable. Why? Because America has Nvidia. We have Apple, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Tesla. We have the NBA. We have Sydney Sweeney. We have the B-2 bomber. We are, in his words, "crushing it." China, on the other hand? "TikTok. That's pretty much it." That's the full accounting of China's rise. There's something almost refreshing about the confidence. Hennessey isn't hedging. He's saying, we're winning, China is not, don't worry, relax. The problem is, when you actually look at the numbers, the confidence isn't confidence. It's a falsetto.

Consider the numbers Hennessey doesn't mention. Let's start with manufacturing. Hennessey frames America as the world's economic engine, and manufacturing is where that engine gets built. But consider China. It accounts for 27.7% of all global manufacturing output. That's nearly five trillion dollars in 2024 alone. It has held the title of world's largest manufacturer for sixteen consecutive years. China is not rising, not catching up. China has been dominant for a generation.

Now let's talk about the industry that will define economic and military power for the next fifty years: electric vehicles. In 2024, China produced 70% of every electric vehicle built anywhere in the world. And it produces nearly 80% of all lithium-ion batteries. BYD, a Chinese company, sold 4.3 million vehicles last year. Tesla sold 1.8 million. Six of the world's ten largest EV manufacturers are Chinese. And here's the number that I think really cuts through the noise: the cheapest BYD model retails in China for under eight thousand dollars. The cheapest American EV starts at thirty-three thousand six hundred. That gap is not marketing. That's an industrial capability that took decades to build, and we do not currently have an answer for.

Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, toured Chinese factories last year and test-drove Chinese EVs. And afterward, he said: "The most humbling thing I've ever seen." That's the CEO of Ford. Not a think-tank analyst. Not a politician. The guy who runs one of the most iconic American car companies in history.

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[Hey Joe]

1. Yes

China leads us in manufacturing, EV’s and battery technology.
Also in rare earths and are catching up on weapons technology and production.
Hennessy’s column sounds like whistling past the graveyard to me.