While America is busy pushing ahead its new “America First” agenda, it seems as though China is well ahead of the game with its own “Made in China 2025” initiative, which has the country poised to take the lead in engineering. As all kinds of students graduate from their online master of science in electrical engineering degree at prestigious universities such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, they are flooding the market only to discover that America is not first at all on the global scale.

America Second May Need to Become the New Slogan

While there has been talk of China quietly pulling together its resources and aiming to take over in a number of industries, nowhere is it more noticeable than in the field of engineering. It seems as though China's rise is having more of an impact that experts were predicting.

Where it used to be that the United States dominated in the field of top engineering schools, now they are sharing the spot with China. Of the top 10 engineering schools in the world, the United States and China now each have four on the list.

That means for all the students graduating with such degrees as the master of science in electrical engineering, there is intense competition coming from the other side of the world. No longer are students simply competing with other graduates here at home; rather, they are competing with graduates from around the world, in particular, China.

Four Times the Annual Graduates

The STEM subjects are made up of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and it is here you really start to see some strong numbers. These are the core competencies needed across the board when looking at the fastest-growing sectors of today's modern economies.

Right now, China has four times more graduates in these subjects on an annual basis over that of the United States. To look at the numbers more specifically, China sees 1.3 million STEM graduates annually, whereas here in the United States, it's just 300,000.

To add salt to the wound, there were also more Ph.Ds. in STEM fields awarded to Chinese university graduates each and every year during the Obama administration. So while this push for China to take the lead in a number of industries may seem relatively new, the fact is that it’s been happening quietly behind the scenes for quite some time now.

Here's another statistic that is coming as a wake-up call for many here in the United States, and that's the fact that China isn't just aiming to be number one in a variety of markets but it has already hit that spot. When it comes to smartphones, supercomputers, and automobiles, China has far surpassed the United States.

A Trend That Continues to Build Strength

The trend of China pushing ahead and really becoming not just a serious player in various STEM fields but also a leader is one that doesn’t show signs of slowing. If anything, the Chinese government is setting up measures and initiatives to help ensure that China continues to push for the top and become a global leader.