Understand that the anti-data center movement is, at its core, a deindustrialization movement. So of course China is pushing it.
The US is manufacturing, at scale, the most valuable resource in the modern economy: artificial intelligence. But already, the NIMBY/anti-AI coalition wants to offshore the means of production.
How did that work out for us when we moved the manufacturing of steel, electronics, and other critical industries to East Asia?
Well, it worked out great for China, but decimated America's Heartland.
Now notice the overlap between the regions hit hardest by the China Shock (chart I) in the 2000s vs. the areas where the data center buildout is currently strongest (chart II).
This is a great American comeback story, the hour of the Rust Belt's industrial renaissance. For the first time in decades, we have a chance to reclaim industrial supremacy in the very sector that will determine the future of the global economy.
These are the stakes, and our enemy understands them better than most members of Congress.