Shannon Vaughn breaks down how modern China actually works, why the CCP’s primary objective is regime survival, and how that shapes everything from AI policy to military strategy.

Order Jeffrey Ding's book, Technology and the Rise of Great Powers.

In this episode, we’re joined by Shannon Vaughn, non-resident fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and General Manager of Virtue Federal, with more than two decades across the military, intelligence, and national security ecosystem.

We dig into China’s approach to AI diffusion, data scale, and industrial execution, and why the U.S. focus on frontier models may be missing the bigger picture.

The conversation spans drones, DJI, humanoid robots, Taiwan, and what real asymmetric competition looks like. A clear-eyed, operator-informed discussion for anyone thinking seriously about the future of defense, technology, and strategic competition.

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