U.S. must lead in building a Pacific drone industrial base to balance China’s economic might and hegemony

China’s leaders increasingly see the path to strategic advantage running through economic power, not just military might.

From shipyards to semiconductors, and robotics to unmanned systems, Beijing is mobilizing its entire economy to win what one expert calls a contest for “economic victory” that lets it rewrite rules and norms in its favor across the Indo-Pacific and the Global South.

Breaking Defense spoke with Shihoko Goto, vice president of programs and director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, about what it will take to build a regional unmanned-systems industrial base that complements U.S. strengths, how trust and predictable rules underpin co-production, and why lessons from Ukraine’s drone war must be applied now to potential flashpoints in the Indo-Pacific.

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