Originally Posted by
Turbosina
And yet so many Americans dismiss the Chinese as makers of "useless crap I can buy at Walmart." They surely do make plenty of that sort of stuff, but in recent years they have become much more forward-thinking with their industrial policy than we have.
China has tons of its own economic issues, and they still can't make a decent commercial aircraft... But they're absolutely on a trajectory to overtake us as the world's economic superpower at some point in the next decade.
Meanwhile we spend our time changing Notices to Air Missions back to Notices to Airmen. Yup, we've got our priorities straight...
It is very difficult to contort China’s progress into something apropos here. The regulatory environment existing in the United States is essentially absent there, nor are the administrative hurdles. Unless we take down the guard rails, they are bound to surpass us.