The 50-State Strategy for America’s Competition with China

China understands that its national power depends as much on its ability to innovate and build at scale as it does on traditional military power. America needs to understand the same.

Sean Nottoli | September 17, 2026

The United States needs to rethink its strategy and approach to its great-power competition with China. America’s competition with China will not be won in Washington alone. Federal tariffs, export controls, diplomacy, and military power matter enormously, but they ultimately depend on something Washington does not directly control: the industrial ecosystems being built in America’s states.

Individual states are already playing a large role in preserving American leadership in key areas, especially aerospace. When President Trump and Chairman Xi met in Beijing this past spring, Beijing made clear that one of its greatest interests in the United States was maintaining access to American-made aircraft and aviation equipment, much of it produced in states like South Carolina.

Despite the advances China has made in its aerospace industry, it continues to rely on many Western technologies that support modern commercial aviation. Even the COMAC C919 — China’s flagship airliner, proudly marketed as domestically produced and hailed as a symbol of growing self-sufficiency — still depends on Western engines, avionics, and other critical systems from firms such as GE Aerospace, Honeywell, and Collins Aerospace.

China’s problem isn’t a lack of engineering talent. China can build an airplane and manufacture its components. The problem is that it has yet........

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