JD Vance Is Wrong About China: America’s Real Competitor Is Its Own Educational Failure 

Vice President JD Vance and many other American political leaders increasingly speak about China as though China’s economic rise is something being done to the United States. China is portrayed as an adversary responsible for the loss of American manufacturing, America’s trade deficits, technological competition, and the growing anxiety that the United States may eventually lose its position as the world’s dominant economic power. 

But perhaps Vice President Vance is angry at the wrong country. 

Instead of asking why China is becoming more competitive, Americans should be asking why the United States has allowed some of the foundations of its own competitiveness to deteriorate. And nowhere is that question more important than education. 

More than four decades ago, the federal government received an extraordinary warning. 

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. Its opening pages contained one of the strongest statements ever issued by a federal commission about American education: 

“If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.” 

The commission then delivered the sentence that should still haunt Washington today: “As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.” (Jacob Hibel⁠) 

Think about that. 

This warning came in 1983—long before China became the manufacturing and technological competitor that dominates today’s political conversation. 

The commission warned that America’s leadership in commerce, industry, science and technological innovation was being challenged by competitors around the world. It described America’s educational foundations as being eroded by a “rising tide of mediocrity” and warned that other nations were matching or surpassing American educational achievement. (Jacob Hibel⁠) 

America therefore cannot blame China for a problem our own government identified more than forty years ago. 

China didn’t write A Nation at Risk. 

China didn’t force America to neglect mathematics, science, engineering and vocational education. 

China didn’t tell American schools to lower expectations. 

China didn’t prevent America from developing the next generation of engineers, scientists, machinists, electricians, programmers and entrepreneurs. 

Those are American responsibilities. 

Competition Is Not the Same as an Enemy 

There are legitimate disagreements between the United States and China. The two governments have serious disputes involving trade, technology, cybersecurity, Taiwan, military power, intellectual property and national security. Americans should not ignore genuine security concerns merely because China is also an important trading partner. 

But recognizing those disagreements does not require Americans to view every Chinese accomplishment as an American defeat. 

China should be viewed as a competitor that challenges America to become better. 

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik shocked the United States. America’s response wasn’t simply to complain that another country had become technologically capable. America invested in science, mathematics, engineering, universities, research and the space program. 

We competed. 

That is the attitude America needs again. 

Vice President Vance himself has used extremely confrontational language regarding America’s economic relationship with China. In 2025, while defending tariffs, he controversially referred to Chinese workers as “Chinese peasants,” remarks that generated an angry response from Beijing. (The Guardian⁠) 

But insulting Chinese workers won’t make American students better at mathematics. 

Tariffs won’t teach a teenager calculus. 

Trade restrictions won’t produce electrical engineers. 

Calling China an enemy won’t manufacture semiconductor engineers, robotics specialists, nuclear physicists or skilled tradespeople. 

Education will. 

The Battle Is in the Classroom 

Imagine if America treated educational achievement with the urgency that Washington treats military competition. 

What if every child graduating from high school had strong financial literacy? 

What if vocational education carried the same prestige as a four-year university? 

What if talented students interested in mathematics and science were aggressively encouraged to become engineers, programmers, researchers and entrepreneurs? 

What if community colleges partnered directly with manufacturers and technology companies? 

What if American students were taught economics, entrepreneurship, investing, artificial intelligence, robotics and computer programming alongside traditional subjects? 

That would be a national-security strategy. 

Economic power ultimately comes from human capital. Factories can be built. Technology can be purchased. Capital can cross borders. But a country’s long-term productive capacity depends heavily upon what its people know and what they can create. 

America has tremendous advantages: world-class universities, deep capital markets, entrepreneurial culture, abundant natural resources, leading technology companies and an extraordinary history of innovation. 

The question isn’t whether China possesses strengths. 

The question is whether America is fully developing its own. 

Stop Blaming China for American Decisions 

It is politically convenient to blame another country. 

If factories relocate overseas, blame China. 

If America’s trade deficit increases, blame China. 

If Chinese companies manufacture products more cheaply, blame China. 

If China produces engineers and builds infrastructure rapidly, blame China. 

But blaming competitors can become an excuse for avoiding self-examination. 

American corporations made decisions to move production overseas. American policymakers designed trade policies. American consumers purchased inexpensive imported goods. American financial markets rewarded companies for reducing costs. And American governments—federal, state and local—made decisions about how much priority to place on education and workforce development. 

China did not make those decisions for us. 

That doesn’t mean every Chinese trade practice is fair or that Washington should abandon national-security safeguards. It means America must recognize the difference between protecting legitimate national interests and using China as a convenient explanation for problems that originate at home. 

The most revealing words in A Nation at Risk were not even the famous “act of war” sentence. 

They were what came immediately afterward: 

“As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.” (Jacob Hibel⁠) 

That statement represents personal responsibility applied to an entire nation. 

Make America Competitive Again 

JD Vance should not be angry because China wants to succeed. 

Of course China wants to succeed. 

So does India. 

So does Germany. 

So does Japan. 

So does South Korea. 

Every serious country wants economic growth, technological leadership and higher living standards for its citizens. 

America’s response should not be fear. It should be competition. 

If China graduates more engineers, America should educate more engineers. 

If China advances in artificial intelligence, America should invest more aggressively in AI research. 

If China develops advanced manufacturing, America should make American manufacturing more productive. 

If Chinese students outperform American students academically, America should examine its schools rather than condemn Chinese success. 

The United States became an economic superpower because generations of Americans built things, invented things, educated people, created companies, took risks and constantly pursued new technologies. 

That spirit can exist again. 

More than forty years ago, A Nation at Risk warned that America’s educational decline was so serious that, had a foreign government imposed it upon us, Americans might have considered it an act of war. 

Perhaps Washington should finally take those words literally—not by declaring war on another nation, but by declaring a national campaign against educational mediocrity. 

China is responsible for China’s future. 

America is responsible for America’s future.