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Good morning,

There was another DeepSeek moment this month: The Chinese lab Zhipu (also known as Z.ai) released a highly competitive AI model that costs a fraction of the price of leading U.S. competitors. It quickly became one of the most popular models in the world, and the news reminded me of Jake Sullivan’s warning earlier this year that “technological power is translating directly and rapidly into geopolitical power to a degree the world hasn’t seen in years.” 

This new reality demands a shift in Washington, he argues. “For decades, U.S. policy toward China rested on a quiet but powerful assumption: Beijing was essentially running the same race as the United States, just a few steps behind.” That assumption has proved incorrect time and again, and if Washington wants to retake the high ground in AI, semiconductors, biotechnology, and clean energy, Sullivan says it must be “the central task of American statecraft in the twenty-first century.”

Until next week,