It really is unique to have a perspective in their tech industry, because you wouldn't know that their technology operations are actually largely being outsourced to specialists. I suppose it would be really easy to see Chinese tech as a true competition without understanding first-hand how they are actually functioning.

If you tried working with Chinese "engineers" you'd be very enlightened. They don't know much and are trained to never admit to not knowing anything. So you present a project to them and they WILL NOT say that they can't do it, and when they fail, they WILL NOT admit to failing. And the leadership/management is a mess, no one is promoted because of capability and results are driven off of fear. You will literally try to explain a concept to them and they will literally nod in agreement and tell you that they understand you, but then they go off and will have obviously not have listened to you or understood you as they struggle to complete their job and never ask for help. Asking for help or saying they don't understand is what they perceive as the true failure, and they would be fired for it as well. It really is the most absurd obstacle.

In my experience, the companies trying to compete with tech production in China fail if they try doing it themselves, and will continue to lose money until finally someone is able to admit that they need American engineers to help them. This is always been the case, I come from a family of engineers and I remember my father always receiving very generous offers to go work in china at a young age. It was always the decision of "well, we'd be rich, but we'd either live in China or I (my father) would be gone 9 months out of 12" on top of the ethical issues with CCP.

Another commenter hit on this perspective though by comparing the air force of Taiwan and China. Taiwan trains as if they will lose, but China basically rigs their simulations to always win, because its more about the confidence to them.

On the threats, I just don't see the threats as much because China has kind of always been that way with Taiwan to remind their dominance. It's about asserting confidence to themselves.

To restate and summarize effectively:

I think the current age of China is one that is used to being historically on top of the power structure because of numbers and hivemind, but now that the age of technology has come, they realized that they need to adapt in order to maintain superiority, but the very hivemind that allowed them to succeed before is proving to be crippling them severely now that industry and trade is becoming a better source of power than a military. Their military will not be sufficient because their numbers meant nothing once the New World became established, making a powerful navy trump a powerful army. America took away their position, and I don't think they will ever get it back, because the age of technology and information has rendered their historical tactic to success (large numbers in a hive mind) to be a crutch instead. China is no longer able to innovate.

The fact the China is allowing others into their country to help build their infrastructure outside of capturing slaves is absolutely unprecedented in history and goes against a very longstanding traditional and ancestral superiority. It tells you that they are desperate and dying.

Hey man, I just thought of another point I think you’d be interested in thinking about. But have you ever wondered, as big as China’s economy is, why do they not have any popular car makes? They have some, but are only ever used domestically. Instead, the big Asian car manufacturers are Korean or Japanese.

Manufacturing a car is a pretty big and complicated project that combines many different technologies. This is exactly what China is not good at.