State of Play Are we thinking about tech competition with China the right way?
Feb 12, 2026
Ilaria Mazzocco, a CSIS expert on Chinese industrial and climate policy; Mark Dallas, a scholar of tech ecosystems and geopolitics. They discuss how China’s manufacturing clusters, patient capital, and speed create geopolitical leverage. They map tech taxonomies, US strengths in precision and alliances, and policy moves like friend‑shoring and scaling manufacturing.
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Ecosystems Drive Tech Competitiveness
- Tech competitiveness depends on ecosystems of firms, government, universities, and allies rather than single breakthroughs.
- Focusing on ecosystem health reveals where limited resources should target to sustain long-term advantage.
Classify Technologies By Complexity And Diffusion
- Technologies differ by complexity and diffusion, e.g., AI is complex and widely diffused while jet engines are complex but specialized.
- The U.S. should defend strengths across these categories and rebuild competitiveness in neglected production and base technologies.
Patient Capital And Consistent Policy
- China leverages patient capital and consistent industrial policy to fund long-range, low-margin technology bets.
- Those factors let China sustain investments that many Western firms and investors avoid.