China Is Winning Without Fighting America — Carl Zha Explains Why https://youtu.be/fgyC1nYDon0

If you're drawing a comparison to the Sid Meiers' Civilization game series, there are multiple "win conditions" - War, Science, Cultural, - China is winning a massive cultural victory. The USA is pursuing a military victory, seeking to capture global commerce by controlling opposition through coercion.

The USA tends to see China as communist in the soviet typology which was notoriously lacking art and culture. Stereotypically, China is viewed as repressive, Chinese people as cold, shrewd, and their government totalitarian, allowing no individuality or self-expression.

This couldn't be further from the reality. China has an explosion of Art, everywhere throughout society, the artistry is overflowing. Although there is cultural homogeneity, individuality is live and well. The Chinese government has a ludicrously high approval rate without needing to force it. Their citizen's living standards are increasing in an undeniable way, their ancient society is living through a golden era and the atmosphere is electric. Even those earning mediocre income can afford to live far better lives than people earning comparable wages in the USA. $250-$500 can get you an apartment that would cost $3500+ in someplace like NYC. Prices are scaled to their incomes. An American earning $80,000 USD can struggle to maintain their lifestyle while a Chinese Citizen earning $45,000 can live with much greater economic security and likely a higher quality lifestyle.

China dominated manufacturing, outcompeting on the price floor, operating on thinner margins than anyone else. The USA pursues price ceilings, trying to raise prices as high as possible. Long-term: low margin high volume outperforms high margin low volume. China is self-reliant as a result and having captured most manufacturing industries, they can steadily walk up prices. The Yuan has rose to 15 cents up from 13 cents. Chinese people have increased purchasing power from years prior as the US dollar is sliding substantially.

Most Americans learn a few Chinese stereotypes, hear scary stories about Chinese surveillance, low wage factory labor, consider the Chinese language to be unrealistically difficult to learn, and completely decline to examine the nature of China any further. In reality, China is out-competing the United States by simply offering a high quality living experience to their citizens. China is far from perfect, they've had unparalleled growth in recent decades moving their massive population from agrarianism to the most robust industrial economy worldwide. There are many issues which they can improve on, most of which, they readily acknowledge and are seeking to remediate.

There's a phrase gaining popularity, "China is governed by engineers, the USA is governed by lawyers." This broadly reflects the distinction between these two nations. The USA is dominated by ruthless self-advancement of individuals, it's every-man for themselves. Hyper-individualism leaves little room for consideration for collective needs beyond thinly veiled pandering for marketing purposes. Time and time again, the governing and corporate entities prioritize immediate, individual profit over long-term strategic planning and societal wellbeing.

In the last 26 years China has built multiple cities of comparable size to NYC, LA, Chicago, and other metropolises within the USA. The USA has built none.

I'll conclude by summarizing again. China has an incredible economic upswing with self-sufficient manufacturing, their culture is better-than-ever and they continuously strive for advancement. The nature of life is incompleteness, China is not perfect, but they are far closer to a self-correcting system than the USA. They even have more political parties than the USA and arguably have achieved a greater democracy, the CCP is not the sole party although they are the governing party. Citizens have avenues for remediation of grievances and realistically, the odds that the CCP would escalate and respond to such concerns is far greater than the American Congress or Senate caring about their constituencies. Chinese people are friendly, they appreciate the advances their society has made, and they take pride in their culture. Conversely, the United States is highly dependent on trade, is in no-way self-sufficient with manufacturing, their culture is unanimously perceived as being in decline, doom-and-gloom predominate the narrative. The US dollar is decreasing in value, not increasing. No major infrastructure improvements have occurred in the USA, merely iterative upgrades. The USA has wild, unimaginable criminality, some of the most depraved things that have ever happened in any society in history. Americans trust each other less and less, there is no perception of commonality, prices rise and income stays stagnant as the dollar declines.... Meanwhile the government is trashing the constitution flagrantly by pushing the patriot act while killing for special interests' profit in foreign nations.

China is an enigma to most westerners, digging beneath the surface one begins to see China eclipsing the USA in dramatic fashion by simply providing better living conditions for their population. If you had to live with moderate income, say $30,000-$100,000 per year, you'd rather live in China than the USA, you'd save more and live better. The USA is only for the rich and the wealthy have no plan for elevating their society, culture, or economy. Total oligarchy by people who do not concern themselves with the wellbeing of those they preside over, they don't even bother to pretend to care any more.