The United States has long been a dynamic force of creativity, media, and entrepreneurship, using the idea of the market economy to limit government interference in business activities. From this position of influence, US politicians have cultivated an “America-first” narrative that inflates the US’ economic success and demeans the economies of competing nations—a narrative that consistently antagonizes China, often portraying its state-controlled economy as a barrier to true innovation and success. Yet, in some ways, China is at the center of the global economy. Though China’s economy continues to grapple with inefficiency, low consumer confidence, and rampant corruption, it is also the largest exporter of goods worldwide with a growing force in the tech industry: two positions of power that threaten America’s brand of economic superiority.
For US politicians, the highest form of praise is imitation. With Elon Musk’s stay at the White House and a line-up of billionaires at Trump’s most recent inauguration, it has become abundantly clear that the US has started to blur the lines between government and business in a way that both mirrors and contrasts China’s command economy. In China, several components of the economy are state-owned, while in the US, more and more aspects of the government appear to be “business-owned” or controlled by major economic players.
In the same vein, the US’ push for tariffs on Mexico, Canada, China, and other global partners seemingly attempts to replicate China’s protectionist outlook on trade—though their strategies vary in longevity, approach, and intention. In many respects, Chinese protectionism is an embedded quality of its economic structure. The United States, on the other hand, often uses protectionist policies in quick bursts as political attacks.
These fundamental differences have worked against the US in their efforts to boost its domestic economy. As China’s recent accomplishments in AI, technology, and media production begin to compete with US innovations, the US must instead spend time on managing the effects of weaponized tariffs and political polarization. US government officials must take a step back and reevaluate America’s economic strategy to amplify the main proponents of its successes—trade, competition, and the working class—instead of trying to beat China at their own game.
Media Conglomerates, Data Privacy, and Free Speech
American media dominates global airwaves. Hollywood movies thrive in the global box office, with organizations like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) historically acting as a key proponent of free trade and cross-country releases. US-based artists rake in mass appeal—making up 66 percent of the songs on Spotify’s Global Top-50 playlist towards the end of December—generating revenues of around $39 billion.
Despite its popularity, Americans have less faith in their media than ever. In 2024, only 31 percent of Americans expressed a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in US media, falling drastically from the 60–70 percent range of the seventies. For a country that prides itself on free speech, particularly in comparison to censorship-heavy countries like China and Russia, American consumers are experiencing a crisis of confidence in their First Amendment rights.
The confidence crisis recently peaked once more with the US Government’s latest attempt to ban Tik Tok: one of the most popular social media platforms and news sources for young adults today. Government officials cite data privacy concerns, claiming that Tik Tok could become a vessel of Chinese espionage and propaganda if its parent company, ByteDance, refuses to sell it to an American company. Critics of the ban state that the US’ actions represent its descent into censorship, suggesting that the US wants to control the narrative of younger generations and reshape their political ideologies to align with traditional nationalistic views.
Yet, in their rush to avoid China, American politicians have inadvertently conformed to stereotypically Chinese tactics. Citizens residing in Mainland China cannot access the global version of Tik Tok, instead confined to Douyin: a version of Tik Tok that excludes the rest of the world. US officials have long admonished China’s strict censorship regulations, most notably in Beijing. Chinese citizens cannot publicly discuss the economy, let alone examine or evaluate the Chinese government.
Though to a lesser extent, Americans have started to grapple with the same issues. Activists and academics around the US have raised concerns over the removal of diversity-related web pages from government-owned websites and the cuts to federal research funding. These cuts disproportionately impact the healthcare community and researchers that advocate for marginalized groups, banning the dialogue around gender, race, and sexuality altogether in many cases. The Trump Administration is on a mission to end the “woke” agenda, but in doing so, Americans lose the ability to speak their minds and form their own—evidence-based—opinions.
While the US inches closer towards China’s flaws, China has taken a step closer towards the US’ strengths, starting with innovation. China’s innovation ecosystem has grown leaps and bounds since the twentieth century, with its high-volume, hyper-adaptable population fueling sustained growth. In 2018, WeChat Pay saw 1.2 billion transactions per day on average, while Apple Pay saw an average of 1 billion transactions per month. In 2020, China led the global production in 70 percent of advanced industries, with the US leading the remaining 30 percent. Even in the box office, the Chinese film “Ne Zha 2” became the first non-Hollywood studio production to cross $1 billion in ticket sales. China’s innovation, combined with its self-sufficiency, poses a great threat to America’s rapidly dividing culture and loss of identity.
In the age of technological marvels like Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) and smart technology, the US’ ability to innovate has skyrocketed in geopolitical importance.
The Great AI Race
The US has long led the charge for high-tech goods and services, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no different. American AI models—owned by companies like OpenAI, Meta, Google, and X—have disrupted not only the tech industry, but almost every sector of the global economy. When OpenAI launched ChatGPT in November 2022, it revolutionized human-AI interaction, generating contextual, adaptable, and stylistic responses with proficiency across different disciplines. Nearly three years later, US AI companies have continued to dominate, with major tech giants aiming to spend over $300 billion by the end of 2025.
However, Chinese startup Deepseek has found a way to disrupt the disruptors, performing as well as its predecessors despite being developed behind the “Great Firewall” of China. Deepseek matches OpenAI’s capabilities while surpassing OpenAI’s cost-effectiveness; for the same quality and “reasoning” capabilities, Deepseek uses less memory and fewer costs—costing $6 million to train compared to OpenAI’s $100 million—and subsequently has caught the eye of tech giants in Silicon Valley and investors in the greater market.
For general audiences, Deepseek’s entry did not go unnoticed. Deepseek became the most-downloaded free app on the Apple App Store once it became available in the United States, with enough traffic for technical outages and enough users for global controversy. Artificial intelligence models in China must avoid topics that the Chinese government considers politically sensitive, raising concerns around the involvement of the government in the website itself. Countries outside of the US have taken defensive actions due to this mistrust, including Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan, who have banned Deepseek on government systems.
Though the US has yet to ban Deepseek altogether, it has tried to keep its innovations under lock and key. This is a bipartisan effort; Biden’s “AI Diffusion Rule” limits the spread of cutting-edge technology to China and other political adversaries, and representatives from the Trump administration have suggested that additional restrictions are on the way. It is likely that Chinese policymakers anticipate such legislation, as the previous Trump administration fiercely advocated against the global reach of Chinese tech company Huawei: a significant rival to smartphone companies like Samsung and Apple.
In the face of global competition, the US government—regardless of political affiliation—will prioritize the profitability of US companies. This protection, though beneficial to the American tech industry, has transformed government leadership, deeply intertwining politics with the success of individual tech giants.
State-Owned Economies and Business-Owned Governments
The current US economy runs like its own entity, with billionaires as its most influential shareholders. In the era of Muskian-era politics, more and more Americans are left to ponder whether their votes matter more than the market shares of the wealthy, especially in comparison to prominent tech leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos.
America’s “tech oligarchy” and China’s “socialist market economy” both blend politics and economics to favor those in power. Nevertheless, the American government is no stranger to effective branding, particularly when it comes to the global mistrust of China. However, highlighting comparative strengths only works when the entities being compared are legitimately different; the US cannot effectively leverage China’s reputation of corruption and censorship if its government continues to reach worldwide headlines for its newfound tension with allies and growing divide within its own social structure.
For the US to live up to its own expectations, it must uplift innovations beyond its inner circle of tech giants. Instead of hammering down on diversity, it must actively seek out diverse perspectives to amplify the inventions and inventors hidden between different tax brackets.
Policymakers need to move fast—as the US slows down, China ramps up. According to the 2024 Global Innovation Index, China ranks seventh place in innovation outputs, moving up in the ranks year over year, while the US ranks fifth: a notable decline from previous reports. If the US fails to promote political and economic progression, the country may fall victim to its own ambition.
