Eroded American Industrial Base Must Be Restored to Defeat China

A worker’s reflection on a mirror framing a lithium-ion battery production line at a plant in Huzhou, China, owned by Microvast Holdings, whose Texas-based subsidiary qualified to negotiate for a $200 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to build lithium batteries in the U.S. Stringer/Reuters

Commentary

In the event of war with China, the weakness of America’s defense industrial base will ensure that the Chinese would prevail. As things stand, U.S. manufacturers lack the adequate ability to meet basic defense needs for the contemporary age of great-power competition.