Most people believe that “education is the key to success” on a personal level, such as the effect of education on employment, earning power, problem-solving skills, individual prosperity, and a happy life. Some general discussions on education’s contribution to communities or societies and its effect on personal attributes (human development) are critical thinking, communication skills, and IQ (brain development). Other than some institutional work tabulating economic statistics such as GDP and life expectancy in correlation with national education levels, such as K-6, K-9, or K-12, there is no serious discussion or case study on the effect of education on nation development (nation-building). Currently, the U.S. and China are in a serious competitive relationship, engaging in a trade war (tariff), technology sanctions (R&D&M), and all-out competition covering diplomacy, media, military, and education. In education, it involved some critical policies such as curtailing education exchanges (foreign studies) and limiting scholarly interactions. This paper attempts to focus on the issue of education on national development and how education may have led to the U.S.-China relations to today’s hostile state unnecessarily and why there is a need for a K-12 curriculum guide for nation development in addition to personal development to make American students gain global citizenship knowledge and aspiration with ability to improve US foreign relations such as the U.S.-China relations. 
 
Impact of Education on Society and Citizen Prosperity
 
The following table tabulates the education spending of the G7 developed countries, Mainland China, and Taiwan: 2020 data, U.S. 6.05% of GDP, $1290.04B, population 331.51M, Japan 3.42% of GDP, $172.01B, Population 126M, Germany, 4.66% of GDP, $181.02B, population 84M, UK 5.53% of GDP, $149.29B, population 67.08M, France, 5.5% of GDP, $145.59B, population 65.3M, Italy, 4.27% of GDP, $80.96B, population 60.5M, Canada, 5.17% of GDP, $85.61B, population 38.01M, Mainland China, 3.57% of GDP, 524.35B, population 1411.78M, Taiwan, 5% of GDP, $33.66B, population 23.66M. From these data, one can derive an important indicator, per-capita education spending (PES 2020) which is $3891 (US), $1315 (Japan), $2155 (Germany), $2226 (UK), $2230 (France), $1338 (Italy), $2252 (Canada), $371.4 (Mainland China) and $1427 (Taiwan as a province*). *The national PES figure of China is extremely low, but its provincial figure of Guangdong’s GDP (One of the richest provinces in Southern China) is $1700B with a population of 126M and that of Guizhou’s GDP (One of the relatively poorer provinces near Southwest China) is 275.93B with a population of 38.56M. Using the same percentage spending for education, 3.57% (China sets relatively uniform education policies across all provinces, rich or poor), one obtains $482 for Guangdong’s PES and $256 for Guizhou’s PES, in comparison with China’s national PES of $371. These figures may not be precise, but they do show a ballpark estimate of PES in China. The high PES figures of G7 (the richest nations in the world) endorse the conclusion that education is an important element in achieving and maintaining wealth or standard of living for a nation.
 
More In-depth Analysis of Data
 
However, if one examines the above data with a deeper analysis, one finds the following conclusions:

1. Among G7, the U.S. has the highest PES ($3891), Germany, the UK, France, and Canada have comparable PES of around $2200, and Italy and Japan have similar PES of about $1350. Japan’s GDP is twice that of Italy, hence the fruit of its PES is nearly double Italy’s. The U.S. GDP (PES) is about 5.4 to 12.9 (PES 1.8 to 1.73) times that of Germany, the UK, France, and Canada, but only 11.25 (2.9) times of Italy and only 4.22 (2.83) times of Japan’s GDP(PES). This means that the U.S. got the highest yield from its PES and Japan the second. (Set US as 1.0, then Japan is 4.22/2.83=1.49, Germany, Great Britain, France, and Canada are approximately 5.4/1.8=3, and Italy is 11.25/2.9=3.88)
2. Comparing the U.S. with Mainland China and Taiwan in GDP (PES), the U.S. is 1.45(10.5) times that of China’s GDP (PES) and 31.69 (2.78) times of Taiwan’s GDP (PES). These figures tell us that China is extremely productive (by spending 1/10.5 of US PES and obtaining 1/1.45 of US GDP). Since China has rapidly lifted its population from poverty, it has maintained its growth rate of GDP double or more than that of the U.S, and it also has modernized its defense forces with high morale (patriotism) to deal with the geopolitical pressure from its 14 neighbors and other nations. Furthermore, its people’s life expectancy surpasses that of the U.S. (healthcare), and its crime rate (especially in correlation with broken families) per capita is far less than that of the U.S. (more harmonious society). One must draw an inference that China’s education system is not only more productive (1.45/10.5=0.14) in creating educated manpower for the economy but also more effective for nation development.      

 
Conclusions
 
In the above analysis, one may say that the U.S. is faring reasonably well among G7 nations except when compared with a rising China. Hence, it is no surprise that the U.S. is targeting China as its most serious competitor. However, the current U.S. China policy focuses on diplomacy, military, technology, and economic competition with a hostile strategy trying to build alliances with other nations to curtail China’s rise with a result (leading to war) not at all constructive in building a stronger and better U.S. in terms of nation development. China has several thousands of years of history, rich in philosophy, especially in education and human ethics. Ever since Confucius (551-479 BCE), education was treated as the highest priority, the engine for nation-building not only creating scholars, government servants, military servicemen, and various categories of professionals but most importantly giving the highest respect to teachers and emphasizing education curriculum to include its long history, family and moral values and humanity. (Chinese philosophers including the famous war strategist Sun Ze, are peaceful-minded in contrast to the Western Thucydides theory.) Tests were used to evaluate and accept educators and government officers as a long tradition. Today, China is still employing many of the traditional pedagogy, curriculum selection, and testing methods at various stages of education and career cycles. The rapid rise or recovery of China to become a modern and strong nation today is somewhat linked to its military strength but is far more influenced by its education focus. China creates millions of STEM professionals, dedicated researchers in various disciplines, and millions of government workers with dedication to serve the nation. The success of the Bridge and Road Initiative, BRI, a world project involving global citizenship knowledge, and the lunar exploration project are cases examples.
 
Taiwan as a part of China but separated from the Mainland as a result of the Chinese domestic conflict after WW II. Taiwan of course inherited everything Chinese, culture, language, and the philosophy of education. Taiwan was able to rise economically even earlier than mainland China, but unfortunately, since 1990 its political system is driving ideology to interfere with traditions, most critically on education by allowing political ideology to dictate the curriculum under a premeditated plot of K-12 curriculum revision. Merely three decades, the youth in Taiwan were deprived of history, ancient literature, and teachings of moral values. The results much like what we observe in the U.S., students began to struggle with identification (gender, sex, etc.) issues, having no national pride (blindly equating anti-communist and anti-China with no genuine global citizenship knowledge and denying their ancestry), and wandering with no purpose in life. As a result, the economy of Taiwan became stagnant and dependent on trade with Mainland China, entry-level salaries of professionals have been frozen for decades, unemployment rising, and people are confused with war messages from the over-vibrant media – a very familiar scenario as seen in the U.S. All of these can be traced to the government’s wrong strategy of focusing on economic and military competition rather than investing rationally in education, especially on K-12 curriculum guide, for nation development. One must recognize that the real meaningful competition is in education, China and Taiwan are cases for reference. A clear K-12 global citizenship curriculum is a must for all nations striving for nation development and ever-lasting world peace.

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