Op-Ed: 'Outpacing China Has to Begin at Home'

Steven Rattner returned from a week in China with a blunt message for Washington: "We are not winning." Writing in the New York Times, the former Obama Treasury official and longtime investor in China argues that both President Trump's tariff-heavy strategy and more traditional diplomatic approaches miss the point. China, he says, has become too powerful in key industries—chief among them manufacturing, AI, and drug development—to be slowed by bluster or bargaining. The only viable response, in his view: overhaul US industrial policy and try to "beat China at its own game."

Rattner cites China's rapid ascent in the drug development space as one example: It wasn't long ago that China licensed more pharmaceuticals from abroad than it licensed to other countries; that paradigm has flipped, and it's now outpacing the US in its clinical trial count. Meanwhile, he contends, Trump has moved to cut research spending. That's weakening America's position. Rattner calls for bigger, better-targeted public investment in future-focused sectors, streamlined permitting for critical minerals, and less fixation on tariffs. In short, "outpacing China has to begin at home." Read his full take here.