On September 9, 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent issued a stark warning about China’s accelerating lead in artificial intelligence: “There is no day after tomorrow if China wins at this… then nothing else would matter.” His alarm focused on America’s struggle to build the AI data‑center infrastructure essential for future innovation.
But one critical truth is missing from the national conversation: America is losing the AI talent war, and losing it fast. According to The Economist, “Until recently, most leading AI research was produced by experts based in the West. That is changing. In 2025, for the first time, more studies presented at the world’s top AI conference had lead authors based in China than in either America or Europe.” And when Meta launched its Superintelligence Lab in 2025, it hired 11 top researchers, every one an immigrant, seven from China. China has become a major supplier of elite STEM talent for global AI development.
China’s technological rise is not driven by communist ideology, but by the restoration of meritocracy—combined with a determined effort to learn from, and sometimes steal from, the West. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong abolished the College Entrance Exam to impose ‘class equity’ for workers, peasants, and soldiers. By destroying meritocracy, China produced political revolutionaries who could neither conduct scientific research nor manage modern enterprises. Innovation collapsed, and the economy followed.
In 1977, Deng Xiaoping reversed course. He restored the College Entrance Exam—China’s cornerstone of meritocracy—and launched a national effort to learn from the West. Today, China is no longer merely copying Western technology. It has educated millions of engineers and scientists who now drive China’s technological ascent.
America, tragically, is moving in the opposite direction. Progressive politicians and university administrators are undermining meritocracy and academic excellence in the name of racial diversity, equity, and ideological agendas—precisely when America needs more STEM talent to compete in AI.
American STEM education already lags behind China and many other nations. Yet for decades, elite colleges used race‑based affirmative action to limit enrollment of highly qualified Asian and white students who excel in STEM. This continued until the U.S. Supreme Court finally banned race‑based admissions in 2023.
Progressives also attacked standardized tests, labeling them as racist. After decades of pressure, 2,085 colleges — over 90% of accredited institutions — are now test‑optional or test‑free for Fall 2026 admissions. The University of California system (UC) went further, eliminating standardized testing entirely in 2020.
Five years later, the results are disastrous. As college readiness deteriorates among incoming freshmen, more than 1,400 UC faculty members have signed an open letter demanding the reinstatement of SAT/ACT math requirements for STEM majors.
Eliminating standardized tests allows woke administrators to replace highly qualified applicants with underperforming DEI‑favored applicants. In San Francisco, Mission High School—one of the city’s lowest‑performing schools, with just 6% math proficiency—received a 41.8% acceptance rate to UC Berkeley. Meanwhile, Lowell High School — San Francisco’s top public school, with over 70% math proficiency — received only a 12% acceptance rate. Eliminating standardized testing weakens academic excellence and deepens America’s STEM talent shortage.
The challenge is about to grow. Starting September 15, China will implement a sweeping regulation that, according to the OECD, allows authorities “to ban citizens from leaving the country in order to prevent the outflow of critical technologies and talent, including AI.” This policy will likely cut off a major source of STEM talent for America’s AI industry.
When a society abandons merit, it abandons its future. If America loses the ability to identify and educate its own STEM talent through meritocracy, it cannot win the AI war—one of the most consequential technological competitions in human history.
There is hope. MIT, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and many others have reinstated standardized testing. Now all four‑year colleges—including the University of California system—must do the same. America cannot afford to abandon meritocracy at the very moment when global AI leadership and national security depend on it.
Yukong Mike Zhao is the president of Asian American Coalition for Education, a national leader advocating for meritocracy and educational excellence. In his book, “Critical Race Theory and Woke Culture: America’s Dangerous Repeat of China’s Cultural Revolution,” he criticizes the progressive assault on standardized testing.