An article in the January 12-25 2026 issue of “Aviation Week and Space Technology” discussed the new technology of quantum technologies.

If you do not know what “quantum” anything is, don’t feel bad.  It is a cutting-edge technology – brand-new and certain to be a world-changer; but as to how it will change the world, nobody can quite say as yet.

Key to answering how to develop quantum technologies (note the plural) is the political structure of the world’s two most prominent countries:  the United States and China.

The U.S., as we are all familiar with, possesses a culture based on freedom, a gift of America’s Founding Fathers, as we all know.  The Constitution limits the government in every way.  The Constitution’s Preamble begins with, “We, the People …”, and as has been true since the arrival of the founders of Jamestown in 1607 and of the Pilgrims in 1614, American government is limited and controlled in every way by its constituents.

In stark contrast, China’s culture and government since time immemorial has been top-down:  dictatorial.  Whether regarding its history of kings and emperors, its Communist organization since 1949, or Premier Xi Jinping’s dictates at present, the government controls the country and its people.  

That difference is reflected in the two countries’ approach to making discoveries through research into quantum technologies.

In China, research is “top-down” – directed and controlled by those in control of the government: Premier Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee.  As one article reported, China publishes more quantum-related papers than any other country.  Reportedly, some are worried that China’s five-year plans, cash wealth, and “legions” of scientists will enable it to dominate quantum technologies research.

Where China directs research from the top down, however, in the U.S. the research into quantum technologies is decentralized, loosely directed, and at times even “contradictory”.  

The article states there are 77 startup companies, in addition to 9 large existing companies, and 18 different government organizations in the U.S.  In other words, 104 separate efforts to develop quantum technologies.

Will some of them fail?  Are some going to produce better results than others?  

Of course; that is the point.  There is no way to know which, however, are the best approaches.  Some that might appear to be the best approaches now might turn out to ultimately be less valuable than at first thought.  It may take years – or a decade or more – for the best approaches to become evident.

There are a variety of scenarios which may occur.  Some approaches may be somewhat profitable at first, while other approaches that take more development may ultimately be the best for the long term.  

This mixture of scenarios is exactly what makes America’s freedom superior to China’s “better” top-down focused direction.  China is likely to end up with a fairly good but more limited achievement, while American industry is well-known for dark horses that ultimately become the world’s dominating leaders.

And once established, the need to continue to improve and struggle to assure a better-performing product than competitors (in the U.S., China, or elsewhere) assures that leading-edge products will dominate the marketplace.

Freedom is financially the best foundation for our lives and well-being.

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