Commentary: China Must Focus on Domestic Prosperity to Counter U.S. Nationalism

China’s economic rise has been fundamentally tied to global supply chains, with high dependence on foreign energy, food and core technologies. Unlike the U.S. and Russia, which can quickly pivot to wartime economies, China isn’t structured for war-based economic circulation. Its prosperity stems from global peace dividends.

Even as China became the world’s leading manufacturer in shipbuilding and automobiles, it chose not to militarize its excess industrial capacity. This stands in stark contrast to pre-World War II Germany and Japan, which channeled industrial overcapacity into militarism and fascism, influenced by their racial ideologies and military-dominated governance traditions.