Entertainment
Can anybody compete with China?
Supply chain and business scalability expert Aaron Alpeter joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning questions about Chinese manufacturing, like if any country can effectively compete with them in the manufacturing ecosphere. Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► Listen to the Get WIRED podcast ►► Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►► Follow…
@jabiriumar9654
February 26, 2026 at 3:04 pm
China is outperforming the US in every category you want to name as long as it’s technology. Defence? Come on, not anymore
@anshtiwari3555
March 3, 2026 at 7:41 am
Who cares?
@Hirnlego999
March 5, 2026 at 1:18 pm
@anshtiwari3555 A war with China will likely happen
@AndreaEstrada-w9p
February 26, 2026 at 3:08 pm
This is so well done.
@Here4TheHeckOfIt
February 26, 2026 at 3:13 pm
Exactly. We’re trying to catch up at this point. Thank you for some interesting insights
@davida6146
February 27, 2026 at 9:52 am
But USA is already 20-25 years behind 😅
@ShinjiKataoka
March 5, 2026 at 2:58 am
@davida6146very true
@WinstonSmithGPT
February 26, 2026 at 3:33 pm
What drivel.
@hopegalloway1998
February 26, 2026 at 6:25 pm
….. quality?
@Primenumber19
February 26, 2026 at 7:46 pm
This guy must be paid by China. They make low grade chips for your blender. They can’t make the higher level stuff. Also remember, china fudges numbers on the regular. They have almost unpopulated cities they claim are thriving.
@moredots
February 27, 2026 at 8:55 am
There are a few select industries (like cutting edge semiconductor) where China is not the world leader, but dozens of manufacturing industries where they are.
Nobody hopes to compete in the nuts and bolts things like injection molding, PCB manufacturing, wire and cable, and even the majority of “basic” chips for everything less complex than a cell phone.
@Primenumber19
February 27, 2026 at 11:29 am
@moredotsVietnam and Mexico are perfectly fine options. Plus Chinese demographics are a nightmare, they are about to have more retired people than people in the workforce
@ohhellnooooo8233
February 27, 2026 at 11:51 am
China is a very very large place. Yes they do make cheap things. Yes they do have empty cities. They also have many many many more high tech highly developed safe and thriving cities, connected by a train network longer than the circumference of the earth, faster than plane travel.
@moredots
February 27, 2026 at 12:32 pm
@Primenumber19mexico and vietnam both have a strong manufacturing sector, but China’s manufacturing output is about 10 times both of them combined.
The only advantage Mexico has is that it’s close to the US. The only advantage Vietnam has is that it’s not China (for contracts that specify China+1) and can access most of the China supply chains, albeit less efficiently.
This isn’t about whether other countries have manufacturing. Sure, they do. You can get injection molding in the US. But China is the biggest and offers the best combination of quality vs capacity in the majority of categories.
@Primenumber19
February 27, 2026 at 1:05 pm
@ohhellnooooo8233 they also announced a major nuke program and found out all the new silos were filled with water. They routinely fake logistics like trucks moving between empty factories to fool satellites. They project much much bigger than they are.
@JeSSica-Jiv
February 26, 2026 at 8:07 pm
China is outperforming the US in every category you want to name as long as it’s technology. Defence? Come on, not anymore
@yyin3061
February 26, 2026 at 8:50 pm
BBC: At what cost? …
@mil546
February 26, 2026 at 8:54 pm
No, American companies made China rich today. So far anything that is made in China have a short life, of course they have large population for mass production those never get to have a long-life. While our cities start to look outdated this companies brag about how great China looks.
@00dfm00
February 27, 2026 at 5:18 pm
If the quality is cheap it’s because that’s what the customer business asked for. Remember that the customer gets their hands on the samples and they say yes go ahead. China builds exactly the quality American companies ask them to.
@rphil8574
February 26, 2026 at 10:49 pm
Wow. That’s commitment. Self destruction if threatened.
@raoulm616
March 3, 2026 at 4:41 am
It’s a great deterrent if they invade just to get tsmc. Well done taiwan
@dudelmt
March 3, 2026 at 5:37 am
@raoulm616 Its an incentive not a deterrent lol. China already cant buy Nvidia chips it wont change anything for them. TSMC explodes and US will have no chips.
@websnarf
March 3, 2026 at 2:46 pm
@dudelmt TSMC makes every other kind of chip too. China still wants/needs those.
@RoyK-f3n
February 27, 2026 at 12:29 am
also remember folks, western country invest in China and actually use the money to build things instead of going to stock market.
a trillion dollar investment in real goods and factory is really different than a trillion dollar in stock market
@user-zp8pn4no8k
February 27, 2026 at 3:38 am
Defence budget is in the trillions 😂 priorities..right?
@Scuby007
February 27, 2026 at 9:19 am
Yeah, and they have to be used and replaced, and who pays to buy the defence products?
@websnarf
March 3, 2026 at 2:47 pm
We need those half million dollar smart missiles to take out $300 wooden drones launched by Iran.
@user-zp8pn4no8k
March 3, 2026 at 7:11 pm
How about no war you spastics 😂
@BeaverEnthusiast
February 27, 2026 at 7:10 am
I think chinas major strongpoint is their rare earth refinement. All modern technologies rely on them and they are the only game in town
@davida6146
February 27, 2026 at 9:55 am
China started mining for rare earth minerals long before they were considered of any value. USA has rare earths but they do not have the infrastructure to mine them, but if they invest about 20 years, they could have what China has. But the real advantage China has is wisdom in knowing where to invest then patiently waiting/enduring. No other western country has these qualities.
@davida6146
February 27, 2026 at 9:51 am
Let’s go China!!! ❤ 🇨🇳
@Fixer_101
February 27, 2026 at 5:37 pm
Excellent segment!
Interesting note about the Taiwanese defense plan. If that’s really true, they should advertise it. I see no problem with the world being aware of their grit.
@ludvigericson6930
March 1, 2026 at 7:45 am
It is well known, and has been for over a decade.
@Fixer_101
March 1, 2026 at 9:23 am
@ludvigericson6930
Well, i went hunting around the web after seeing this. There are no confirmations and appears largely allegorical. What’s odd to me is that, if it’s true, there really should be confirmations out there to solidify the deterrent.
@DigSamurai
February 28, 2026 at 3:07 pm
One of the great tragedies of Donald Trump is that some of his instincts were right, like cutting regulation, but he always took it too far. Look at what he did to consumer protection agencies and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Reshoring semiconductors is a good idea. Targeted tariffs can also make sense when they are precise and strategic. But Trump chose blanket tariffs, and those largely hurt the US through higher prices and retaliation. And government ownership of companies like Intel crosses a line. That is straight out of the communist playbook and carries serious negative consequences.
Joe Biden was not much better. The CHIPS and Science Act had merit, then it got bloated with self interested add ons just to secure bipartisan support.
The answer is simple. Do environmental assessments, but one, not six. Review regulations, keep what works, cut what does not. This is painfully obvious. The real question is whether the two party system is even capable of doing it.
China has many problems the US does not. But its advantage is speed. Xi Jinping can move fast and adjust policy based on evidence and data.
If only there were a system that could combine the best of China’s execution with the best of United States values and accountability.
@eestaashottentotti2242
March 1, 2026 at 6:26 pm
Just give Taiwan a few dozen nukes. Problem solved. And maybe put NATO military base there (change the troops of an existing one).
@nathalieperez1248
March 1, 2026 at 7:34 pm
No wonder China wants Taiwan to join as one
@nathanrozenberg1061
March 2, 2026 at 8:43 am
It’s pedantic, but toasters generally are one of the few household electronics that wouldn’t need a microchip. The majority of household toasters run directly off AC power and have no need for a processor.
@dudelmt
March 3, 2026 at 5:40 am
timer chip? controller IC?
@vlotty9
March 5, 2026 at 9:46 am
@dudelmtBasic toasters should have mechanical-electrical switching. Like basic electric kettles or old school rice cookers. No IC chips.
@Theme-man
March 3, 2026 at 12:58 pm
It’s such an American thing to make people think the Taiwan issue is about the Chinese going after TMSC.
@Theme-man
March 3, 2026 at 12:58 pm
It’s such an American thing to make people think the Taiwan issue is about the Chinese going after TSMC.
@odonnchada9994
March 3, 2026 at 1:31 pm
Boycott Evil China
@websnarf
March 3, 2026 at 2:27 pm
So a bunch of us were trying to climb a mountain and an avalanche has started so we’ve turned around and we are desperately trying to run back down to avoid being buried alive. Some of us are running faster than others, some have found a shorted path back to ground level. And of course we’ve all ditched our gear since that was just slowing us down. And your question is, which of us is going to reach the summit first?
@SoFloDamien
March 4, 2026 at 8:47 am
A toaster?