The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
China’s Techno-Industrial Strategy in the Xi Era: Producing Under Pressure
English Summary
Under Xi Jinping, China has fundamentally shifted its techno-industrial strategy from prioritizing growth and catch-up to emphasizing national security, technological self-reliance, and frontier technology leadership through five integrated policy channels—fiscal instruments, financial mechanisms, real economy levers, Party-firm coordination, and overseas initiatives. The Party-state has centralized control and moved from direct subsidies to market-based but politically-directed mechanisms (tax incentives, credit guidance, mandates, capital market reforms) due to tightening fiscal constraints. Although generating impressive technological capabilities and manufacturing scale in priority sectors, the system faces structural tensions: centralization risks suppressing the local experimentation that historically drove innovation, politicized capital allocation may degrade economic efficiency, and mandates spread compliance costs to firms while underlying productivity and demand remain weak. China's unprecedented manufacturing trade surplus is generating growing international friction, compounded by real exchange rate depreciation and industrial policy subsidies that force trading partners to absorb adjustment costs. The policy's long-term effectiveness depends on resolving the central paradox: the centralization needed for strategic focus may simultaneously erode the decentralized competition and local dynamism that enabled China's prior rapid industrial development.
中文摘要
習近平領導下，中國已根本改變其科技產業戰略，從優先追求經濟增長和技術趕超，轉向強調國家安全、技術自主性和前沿科技領導地位，通過五個整合政策渠道實現——財政工具、金融機制、實體經濟槓桿、黨企協調和對外舉措。黨國集中掌控，由於財政約束日益緊張，從直接補貼轉向市場化但政治導向的機制（稅收激勵、信貸指導、行政命令、資本市場改革）。雖然在優先部門產生了令人矚目的技術能力和製造規模，但該系統面臨結構性矛盾：集中化可能抑制歷來推動創新的地方試驗，政治化的資本配置可能降低經濟效率，行政命令將合規成本轉嫁給企業，同時基礎生產力和需求仍然疲弱。中國前所未有的製造業貿易盈餘正引發日益增長的國際摩擦，因實際匯率貶值和工業政策補貼而加劇，迫使貿易夥伴承擔調整成本。該政策的長期有效性取決於解決核心悖論：戰略焦點所需的集中化可能同時侵蝕曾經促成中國先前快速工業發展的分散競爭和地方活力。
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