America Needs A Smart Reindustrialization To Compete With China

In our national discourse, it’s easy to retreat into comfortable tropes: “China bad,” “free markets good,” and “the next G is just around the corner.” But none of that is a plan. We need more than another slogan; America needs a real, tangible, industrial strategy. And it starts with a hard-nosed look at how China’s approach to 5G and smart manufacturing is reshaping the global balance of power. Let’s be clear: China’s rise is no longer just a story of cheap labor. That era is over. Today, a growing fraction of China’s manufacturing strength lies in its ability to deploy high-end, labor-light, automation-heavy processes at scale. It’s a productivity story now, driven by robotics, industrial AI, and, most crucially, advanced 5G infrastructure deployed as an industrial platform—not just as a consumer gimmick. If the US wants to compete, we need a strategic, forward-looking industrial policy.

[Nathan Simington is a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission. Gavin Wax is the Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to Commissioner Nathan Simington.]