China is playing long games

The scale at which China is operating and the foresight they have is amazing:

Beijing also is building a national innovation system — linking academia, industry and defense — designed to bolster China’s military and technological strength. In recent years, dozens of China’s top 60 universities have established an expanding array of labs and research centers dedicated to pushing forward technologies with dual civilian and military uses, according to our research. Some of these initiatives were jointly founded by top Chinese tech companies such as Huawei. China also has strengthened research cooperation between prestigious universities and state-owned defense conglomerates, creating channels for technological breakthroughs to flow directly into military use.

This expanding ecosystem and the professional opportunities it affords incentivizes students to study in China, fast-tracking them into careers in strategic industries. It also keeps the country’s best and brightest cocooned within a politically secure domestic system, minimizing their exposure to notions of liberal democracy and human rights.

Beijing is investing heavily. In March, it announced plans to set up a $138 billion venture capital fund to support start-ups focused on strategic technologies such as quantum computing, semiconductors and A.I. The Trump administration, by contrast, has slashed billions of dollars in research funding.