‘Nation Builder’ strengthens China’s position on the world stage
Many people in China sarcastically refer to Trump as “Nation Builder.” The policies of the first and second Trump administrations (many of them the same policies pursued under Biden) are undeniably strengthening China’s reputation in comparison, ironically the exact opposite desired result of the Western capitalist class.
Whether it’s from decades of violence in West Asia, regime change wars being waged around the globe, acts of international piracy, the proxy war in Ukraine or sanctions, the U.S. looks like the bloodstained rogue state it has always been while China looks like the adult in the room practicing responsible governance.
It could be argued that the U.S. policy which has backfired the hardest in China’s favor has been the sanctions regarding information technologies, particularly the most advanced semiconductors to date, extreme ultraviolet lithography machines (EUVs). According to Reuters, “EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold War. They use beams of extreme ultraviolet light to etch circuits thousands of times thinner than a human hair onto silicon wafers.” (Dec. 17) EUVs are critical components to smartphones, artificial intelligence and advanced weapons systems.
China finished building its first EUV prototype in October 2025, years ahead of schedule, and is on course to begin churning out chips between 2028 and 2030. Previously this technology had been monopolized by the Dutch company ASML, but with Western sanctions attempting to keep China a decade behind regarding semiconductors, China has been forced to innovate.
“Necessity is the mother of invention,” as the old cliche goes. It is a policy goal of the Communist Party of China to completely remove the U.S. from all aspects of semiconductor production, a goal they are on track to meet.
Given that the U.S. has been beating the drums of war, the production of semiconductors in general and EUVs in particular is a national security issue for China. After China was iced out of new ASML components, it started funneling billions of dollars in funding toward Chinese-made EUV production, a move only possible because of its socialist system. This included hiring Chinese-born former ASML scientists and engineers, offering massive financial incentives and utilizing older ASML components China still had access to.
China was able to build an EUV prototype in record time. The speed with which the prototype was completed shocked those in the West. In April 2025, ASML CEO Christophe Fouqet said China would need “many, many, years” to develop an EUV prototype; it was completed a mere six months later. (Reuters, Dec. 18)
More innovations
Innovating in regards to information technologies compliments other industries in which China is leading the way, such as transportation technologies, which present an example of quantitative change leading to qualitative change. The flying car’s debut was in the 1930’s U.S. musical “Just Imagine.” Today there is a macabre angst in the U.S. as the capitalist system slips further into a dystopian police state with levels of wealth inequality never seen before. In China, meanwhile, the flying car is already a reality.
According to the New York Times, there are remotely controlled flying taxis capable of flying 80 miles an hour that can travel 25 miles on a single charge. (Dec. 17) In addition to flying taxis and bullet trains, China also has more self-driving cars on the road than the U.S., with self-driving delivery trucks becoming more numerous. Under the socialist system, such a move has the potential to free millions of delivery drivers from this form of labor so they can be utilized in other sectors of the economy, whereas in the U.S. such a move would send our truck drivers into precarity and poverty.
The ruling class has been high on delusions of superiority for far too long, but reality is having disastrous effects on workers and oppressed people. China now has a higher life expectancy than the U.S., and the quality of life in many other countries (even developing ones) is higher and only getting better. (qz.com, Aug. 22, 2023)
The Trump regime and others across the Western imperialist world are doubling down on militarism at home and abroad. Life in the U.S. will continue to get worse until the masses unite against their oppressive and exploitative ruling class.
