In my last article, I focused on China’s strategy to dominate the maritime sphere. Having decided maritime dominance is key to its national success, China proceeded to become the most powerful maritime nation in the world. Yet China’s grand strategy was not limited to things nautical. It set out to lead the world in all strategically important sectors, including manufacturing, rare earths, pharmaceuticals, high technology, and many other fields.

Part of this strategy is the Made in China 2025 Project. Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio and his Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship published a comprehensive report on China’s project in 2023. This startling report documents China’s efforts beginning in 2015 to become dominant worldwide in 10 critical technical and manufacturing sectors by the year 2025.

When China’s leaders set policy, there is no hesitation and no debate; the Chinese Communist Party sets the goal, and the rest of the country falls in line. The entire country turns to the task of carrying out the will of the party.

Made in China 2025 articulates that the nation will lead the world in aerospace, new energy vehicles, next-generation information technology, advanced railway, high-technology shipping, biotechnology, robotics, energy and power generation, new materials, and agricultural machinery. The report documents substantial progress in China’s goals for dominating all 10 sectors. Time and space do not permit a full examination of their progress in dominating these areas, but a quick summary of some will deliver the bad news.

Aerospace: On June 25, 2024, the Chinese spacecraft Chang'e 6 successfully returned from the far side of the moon with rock and soil samples, a feat the U.S. has yet to accomplish. According to Phys.org, “China has a strategic plan to build a space economy and become the world leader in this field. It intends to explore and extract minerals from asteroids and bodies such as the moon, and to use water ice and any other useful space resources available in our solar system.” In terms of space launches, China has virtually caught up to the U.S. In 2023, the U.S. had 116 launches in 2023 while China had 67, substantially closing the technology gap that has existed since space exploration began.

New Energy Vehicles: China intends to become the world’s largest supplier of electric vehicles (EVs). China’s largest maker of EVs rivals Tesla in sales worldwide, and overall, China manufactures three times as many EVs as Tesla — all at a much lower price. China leads the world in EV battery technology and sales and no one else is close. The West depends on China’s batteries for its EVs. Who thinks being dependent on China is a good idea?

Next-Generation Information Technology: Artificial Intelligence is the rage. The U.S. still leads in this technology, but China is putting huge resources into the field with its typical advantage of having a government-directed effort. In the U.S., it is a highly competitive, multifaceted effort with hundreds of companies and little overall coordination of the lines of effort. In China, it is a top-down-directed effort with billions being invested in highly focused and disciplined ways. The consensus is the U.S. still leads, but China is gaining fast.

Advanced Railway: According to Brilliant Maps, China’s High Speed Railroad Network (HSR) is:

• World’s longest and most extensively used HSR network.
  
• Total length: 28,000 miles by end of 2023.
  
• Carried 1.3 billion passengers in 2022.
  
• Design speed: 200–380 km/h (120–240 mph).
  
• Accounts for two-thirds of the world’s total high-speed railway networks.
  
• Owned and operated by China Railway Corporation under the brand China Railway High-speed (CRH).

By contrast, the U.S. has 375 miles of high-speed railroad, and none achieves the high speeds of China’s railroads. Worldwide, high-speed rail transports three billion people per year compared to a paltry 12 million in the U.S. High-speed rail is an efficiency multiplier for any economy. There are reasons why China can keep costs low because its sophisticated transportation network makes for more efficiency and speed everywhere.

Biotechnology: Here are some key quotes from Senator Rubio’s report that won’t help you sleep at night.

“China plays a significant role in the biotechnology industry as a manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients and lower-end drugs.”

“Chinese policymakers aim to make China’s domestic biotechnology industry the medicine cabinet of the world. To a large extent, they have already succeeded in achieving dominance in the lower end of the pharmaceutical and medical technology value chain. 80 percent of the active pharmaceutical ingredients of drugs in the American market come from overseas, primarily from China and India.”

We don’t want to be dependent on China for medicines, but we are.

Robotics: According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation:

• “When it comes to robotic innovation, it is only a matter of time before Chinese firms become leading innovators.”
  
• “China is already the largest industrial robot market in the world, accounting for 52 percent of robot installations globally in 2022.”
  
• “Robotics is one of the most important advanced technology industries of our time and will play an increasingly important role in the world economy.”

China is rapidly overtaking the U.S. as the world’s leader in critical high technology. It has long since supplanted the U.S. in manufacturing. China has a grand strategy to rule the world and is fanatical about pursuing plans to achieve world domination. Senator Rubio and his committee have sounded the alarm.

What can we do about these things? Are we powerless to check the advance of China? The answer is no, we are not powerless. You are a consumer. You can choose to use Chinese technology or not. You can choose to buy China’s products or not. You can write your congressional representatives with your concerns about our policy toward China or not. It is up to you! These may seem like small things. But if our 330 million citizens would awaken to the dangers to our way of life presented by China’s plan to dominate the world, it would make a difference.