Locked, Loaded, and Quantum-Leashed: How China Has Been Playing Go, and the U.S. Has Been Playing Checkers.

By Paul Stone

Ah, the world now in 2025. We’ve reached a point where quantum computing is no longer science fiction, artificial intelligence is the unofficial CEO of most industries and China has essentially risen to the level where it can embark on the role of global task master – largely because all the visionless governments around the world permitted every product to be made by the Chinese.

Meanwhile, in the United States, we’re distracted from what’s happening to us daily. We’re now wildly entertained by watching the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE—yes, like the meme coin) become an actuality in the realm of dis-reality as it slams into the establishment that couldn’t exist without the printed money that funded their programs.

Somewhere in this mess lies a tale of two futures: one where innovation causing efficiency collides with hard coded control in spectacular fashion perhaps unseen since 1776. And another where the bureaucracy (establishment) outlasts the temporary two years DOGE and POTUS can direct Congress (somewhat anyway) and smothers everything in a thick layer of red tape until the midterms where historically the House or the Senate flip against the party in the White House.

This conundrum, where Americans who voted for draining the swamp, would then veer to local candidates in two years (who are promising new goodies to those voters) depowering the agenda from the White House is… wait for it … self-made. My, oh my, we are a finicky bunch.

Let’s start with China, the enigmatic adolescent dragon hoarding not just immense financial treasure, along with the globe’s manufacturing base, but also the keys to our technological driven experience. While its economy might be stumbling around like it had five too many baijiu shots at 2 a.m., let’s not forget one crucial thing: China does literally own the high ground in critical human systems and emerging tech. We are at an end of the leash, just not the end that holds it. That’s a ‘let this sink in moment.’

Check out this chart from Deutsche Bank: note how global manufacturing has shifted since 1995– particularly China’s growth – from 4% to almost 32% in 2023 which is a larger share than the U.S. ever held.

And there is this visual by Anthony DeBarros and Peter Santilli at the Wall St. Journal:

This reality of erosion in American financial strength is well past ‘bingo fuel’ - a term used with helicopter pilots most often for wherever they are flying on a near empty tank. Just enough fuel to return to a safe landing. Once they pass bingo fuel they will not be landing at a safe location and it may be in the ocean or unfriendly territory.

So here is the scenario that requires a little fiction for now, but very well proves over a bit more time to become non-fiction.

Retaliation?

Isn’t it plausible that March 2018 Trump tariffs on China embarrasses them mightily on the global stage and China retaliates with Covid against the U.S. December of 2019?

They had to wait long enough for Trump to be in the throes of economic uncertainty at the election point for him to get sent home. No president has ever won re-election while in a recession. Or, okay, maybe it was stolen. But it couldn’t be stolen without financial disarray, agreed? If that ‘theft’ did happen, not saying it did, it would need cover to hide it. Covid offered that.

Retaliation 2025 style could include quantum computing, AI, and drone warfare. This time America is so financially drunk on printed money and dependent on technology.

Quantum computing that could crack your bank password or any protective firewall type software faster than you can call 911.” Quantum computing in a way of comparing to what you are used to, though they compute differently, is that quantum is millions of times more powerful than your laptop. Millions. In an atom, the proton is at the center, if it were one million times bigger than normal, the electron that orbits the proton would be fifty-three miles away. So, in this computing power visual, one million is gi-freakin-gantic. Webster’s has no good word to capture how massive the difference is so I made it up. But because I believe in gold and gold’s history, I don’t need to make up these next 4 words – YOU CAN’T HACK GOLD.

AI that is perhaps less than a year from Singularity. That’s the point where AI is as fast in responding to something as a human being for plainly relating that term to you.

Ah, but don’t stop there, that’s a milestone and the last one to measure for that is the one that shows AI the next day becomes faster than the human brain and every day thereafter it easily becomes the power lording over us like we enjoy over cattle.

Elon Musk’s big warning on the AI ‘singularity’

In an article including Elon Musk’s big warning on the AI ‘singularity’ from 2023 and his recent comments to the Trump Administration by Christian Papillon at the Washington Examiner:

“It’s very difficult to predict what will happen in that circumstance,” Musk said. “I think we should be cautious with AI and I think there should be some government oversight because it’s a danger to the public.”

(2023 interview with Tucker Carlson) questioned Musk on the likelihood of AI systems taking over from humans.

“It has the potential, however small one may regard that probability, but it is nontrivial,” Musk said. “It has the potential of civilizational destruction. Regulations are really only put into place after something terrible has happened. If that’s the case for AI and we only put in regulations after something terrible has happened, it may be too late to actually put the regulations in place. The AI would be in control at that point.” – Elon Musk

Now folks, that’s the U.S. realm of AI, it should be regulated- once it injures society. In China they don’t have pesky regulations that inhibit what that government wants to do. In the U.S. it’s the corporate world developing AI and you hope your government that gave all your jobs away will protect you???

In China it’s the government that’s developing AI and they exist to quell any voice against their agenda in their country and dominate your life here as well ensuring their world has no challenger to it. That is what communism seeks. They don’t listen to U.S. government regulations on ‘public safety.’

Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, thinks AI may outsmart most humans by 2026. That’s next year folks.

Amodei imagines a world where more powerful AI solves some of society’s biggest problems.

“There’s a big assumption underpinning his predictions about AI’s benefits. Amodei thinks we may be just a couple years away from developing a more advanced version of AI that can outperform humans on many tasks and is smarter than most Nobel Prize winners. In his essay, Amodei writes we might reach this milestone — which he prefers to call “powerful AI” rather than the often-used “AGI,” or artificial general intelligence — as soon as 2026.”

China’s lockdown strategy extends beyond its borders. It’s not just about controlling its own people through mass surveillance and an internet so firewalled it makes the Great Wall look like a picket fence. It’s about controlling global narratives, technologies, and, let’s face it, the future. The world’s most populous country is playing chess with quantum-powered knights, while the rest of us are still squabbling over checkers.

And this segment of time may be near to when they act as retaliation for aggression agsint them. It must be in their nations vision to launch someday and once they do either after our economic implosion, mathematically seemingly guaranteed, or to precipitate it, what else is communism interested in. Maybe all Russia vs. Ukraine was, a proving ground for drone development in real combat.

Drone warfare.

No one can make a smartphone, electric car battery, or military hardware, stealth paint, satellites, or super sophisticated drones without rare-earth minerals. Because China can mine and sell these for much lower prices than the U.S. or Europe. They have 85% of the world’s processing power which turns raw goods into fashioned material used in manufacturing. The U.S. has one mine.

China’s tight grip on rare earth minerals—those essential ingredients for everything from your iPhone to Elon’s Tesla’s—and you’ve got a recipe for global leverage that no amount of American tariffs can neutralize.

So, if our access ends to rare earth minerals and say we have 5,000 drones today that we could launch against China - they could keep making them and could have 15,000 or 50,000 or 500,000. Drones are unique because they can operate and make decisions as a hoard using AI and quantum computing that would take out our manned squadrons like fly swatters.

Imagine 1,000 drones flying at your aircraft carrier that are already running every scenario you might think of to react before they launch, at the same time, not like a drop-down box…all the options at once in full communication with one another directing what each do… to win.

Remember when you read this, China is not reporting on its true level of technological achievement.

While DOGE is busy spotlighting U.S. government lunacy and inefficiency, the real action is in the global AI and supercomputing race. This is where China’s quantum dominance becomes downright terrifying. AI is no longer just about chatbots and Netflix recommendations; it’s the backbone of everything from military strategy to stock market algorithms. And guess who’s building better systems faster?

China’s investments in AI and supercomputing are reshaping the rules of engagement. The country understands something the West hasn’t quite grasped: control the data, control the world. By embedding AI in every aspect of life, China isn’t just predicting the future—it’s programming it. Meanwhile, the United States is stuck in a regulatory quagmire, debating whether AI should be allowed to write haikus, let alone run industries.

As China flexes its technological muscles, its economy continues to be the elephant—or dragon—in the room. The property slump and demographic challenges paint a gloomy picture, but even a modest rebound could send shockwaves through global markets. Let’s not forget that China accounts for 17% of global GDP. A turnaround, no matter how small, would make Wall Street salivate like a dog hearing the word “bacon.”

Contrast that with the U.S., where Trump’s economic policies promised to tame inflation and bring prices “down,” his tariff threats and boosterism are showing the exact opposite. If China sneezes, the global economy catches a cold; if Trump keeps swinging his tariff hammer, he might just force China to act.

At its core, this isn’t just a story about two countries jockeying for position. It’s about the clash between control and chaos, between vision and ego. China’s methodical approach to tech and economic strategy might be unnerving, but it’s effective. The U.S., on the other hand, is a swirling vortex of personalities and half-baked ideas, where progress often feels like an afterthought.

So, what’s the takeaway here? I’ve no crystal ball. In my experience - limited to just that, my experience - people like to latch on to how ‘it won’t go wrong, or we still have time.’

But my take on being useful is about you being early and head off the negative effects of government ineptitude that harms you financially and socially, and head off the day this matchup between the U.S. and China takes place… Remember - the most expensive thing in life is regret.