\n<\/p>\n
I had a choice the other day in Shanghai: Which Tomorrowland to visit? Should I check out the fake, American-designed Tomorrowland at Shanghai Disneyland, or should I visit the real Tomorrowland \u2014 the massive new research center, roughly the size of 225 football fields, built by the Chinese technology giant Huawei? I went to Huawei\u2019s.<\/p>\n
It was fascinating and impressive but ultimately deeply disturbing, a vivid confirmation of what a U.S. businessman who has worked in China for several decades told me in Beijing. \u201cThere was a time when people came to America to see the future,\u201d he said. \u201cNow they come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019d never seen anything like this Huawei campus. Built in just over three years, it consists of 104 individually designed buildings, with manicured lawns, connected by a Disney-like monorail, housing labs for up to 35,000 scientists, engineers and other workers, offering 100 cafes, plus fitness centers and other perks designed to attract the best Chinese and foreign technologists.<\/p>\n
The Lianqiu Lake R. & D. campus is basically Huawei\u2019s response to the U.S. attempt to choke it to death beginning in 2019 by restricting the export of U.S. technology, including semiconductors, to Huawei amid national security concerns. The ban inflicted massive losses on Huawei, but with the Chinese government\u2019s help, the company sought to innovate its way around us. As South Korea\u2019s Maeil Business Newspaper reported<\/a> last year, it\u2019s been doing just that: \u201cHuawei surprised the world by introducing the \u2018Mate 60\u2019 series, a smartphone equipped with advanced semiconductors, last year despite U.S. sanctions.\u201d Huawei followed with the world\u2019s first triple-folding smartphone and unveiled its own mobile operating system, Hongmeng (Harmony), to compete with Apple\u2019s and Google\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The company also went into the business of creating the A.I. technology for everything from electric vehicles, self-driving cars and even autonomous mining equipment that can replace human miners. Huawei officials said in 2024 alone it installed 100,000 fast chargers across China for its electric vehicles; by contrast, in 2021 the U.S. Congress allocated $7.5 billion<\/a> toward a network of charging stations, but as of November this network had only 214 operational chargers across 12 states.<\/p>\n It\u2019s downright scary to watch this close up. President Trump is focused on what teams American transgender athletes can race on, and China is focused on transforming its factories with A.I. so it can outrace all our factories. Trump\u2019s \u201cLiberation Day\u201d strategy is to double down on tariffs while gutting our national scientific institutions and work force that spur U.S. innovation. China\u2019s liberation strategy is to open more research campuses and double down on A.I.-driven innovation to be permanently liberated from Trump\u2019s tariffs.<\/p>\n Beijing\u2019s message to America: We\u2019re not afraid of you. You aren\u2019t who you think you are \u2014 and we aren\u2019t who you think we are.<\/p>\n What do I mean? Exhibit A: In 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported<\/a> that Huawei\u2019s \u201cnet profit more than doubled last year, marking a stunning comeback\u201d spurred by new hardware \u201crunning on its homegrown chips.\u201d Exhibit B: The Journal recently quoted<\/a> the Republican senator Josh Hawley as saying of China, \u201cI don\u2019t think that they can do much innovation on their own, but they will if we keep sharing all this tech with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of our senators need to get out more. If you\u2019re a U.S. lawmaker and want to bash China, be my guest \u2014 I may even join you for a round \u2014 but at least do your homework. There is too little of that in both parties today and too much consensus that the politically safe space is to hammer Beijing, chant a few rounds of \u201cU.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A.,\u201d issue some platitudes that democracies will always out-innovate autocracies and call it a day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n I prefer to express my patriotism by being brutally honest about our weaknesses and strengths, China\u2019s weaknesses and strengths and why I believe the best future for both of us \u2014 on the eve of the A.I. revolution \u2014 is a strategy called: Made in America by American workers in partnership with Chinese capital and technology.<\/p>\n Let me explain.<\/p>\n I agreed with Trump regarding his tariffs on China in his first term. China was keeping out certain U.S. products and services, and we needed to treat Beijing\u2019s tariffs reciprocally. For instance, China dragged its feet for years on letting U.S. credit cards be used in China, waiting until its own payment platforms completely dominated the market and made it a cashless society, where virtually everyone pays for everything with mobile payment apps on their phones. When I went to use my Visa card at a shop in a Beijing rail station last week, I was told it had to be linked through one of those apps, like China\u2019s Alipay or WeChat Pay, which, combined, have a more than 90 percent market share.<\/p>\n I even agree with Trump that additional \u2014 targeted \u2014 tariffs on China\u2019s back doors into America via Mexico and Vietnam could be useful, but only as part of a larger strategy.<\/p>\n My problem is with Trump\u2019s magical thinking that you just put up walls of protection around an industry (or our whole economy) and \u2014 presto! \u2014 in short order, U.S. factories will blossom and make those products in America at the same cost with no burden for U.S. consumers.<\/p>\n For starters, that view completely misses the fact that virtually every complex product today \u2014 from cars to iPhones to mRNA vaccines \u2014 is manufactured by giant, complex, global manufacturing ecosystems. That is why those products get steadily better and cheaper. Sure, if you are protecting the steel industry, a commodity, our tariffs might quickly help. But if you are protecting the auto industry and you think just putting up a tariff wall will do it, you don\u2019t know anything about how cars are made. It would take years for American car companies to replace the global supply chains they depend on and make everything in America. Even Tesla has to import some parts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But you\u2019re also wrong if you think that China only cheated its way to global manufacturing dominance. It did cheat, copy and force technology transfers. But what makes China\u2019s manufacturing juggernaut so powerful today is not that it just makes things cheaper; it makes them cheaper, faster, better, smarter and increasingly infused with A.I.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n How? J\u00f6rg Wuttke, a former longtime president of the E.U. Chamber of Commerce in China, calls it \u201cthe China fitness club,\u201d and it works like this:<\/p>\n China starts with an emphasis on STEM education \u2014 science, technology, engineering and math. Each year, the country produces some 3.5 million STEM graduates, about equal the number of graduates from associate, bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s and Ph.D. programs in all disciplines in the United States.<\/p>\nTrump\u2019s magical thinking<\/h2>\n
Inside the China fitness club<\/h2>\n