China is Winning

The United States must wake up.

From The Wall Street Journal

China is winning and America is losing. We are in the midst of a global competition in which two superpowers are fighting for supremacy, and the one in the East is conquering almost every single facet of economic, political, scientific, and geopolitical advancement.

This dilemma can be explained by the priorities of each nation and its people. In China, the process of governance and advancement is smooth, for its government and its people have nothing in their minds except for accomplishment and success in everything they do. Chinese culture is rough, but that cold roughness is what makes every child who comes out of his or her school more structured, more capable, more hungry, and more disciplined. This culture has been maintained for decades or longer than that. It is what has made China more focused on its mission to be supreme on the world stage.

As of right now, China has created the largest infrastructure project in history, using its massive manufacturing power to build roads, train tracks, bridges, and such in not only their country but in Africa, central Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. China has ambitions for their space program, having goals to exceed American capabilities in space. In technology, China is gaining ground in AI technology, causing speculation that they will become a global leader in that field. They are also expanding their 5G network to other countries. This is their obsession.

But, what is ours? A bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill has been agreed upon - that is good. But, it has been nearly seventy years since a plan of that grand of a scale has been passed and implemented. Do you know how long China went from using a majority of their land for farming to building the largest and most numerous metropolises in a country? Three decades. And during that time, we have been engaged in wars, regime-toppling, and nation building that all ended in failure. We have been engrossed in conspiracy theories that have infiltrated a large part of the Republican party. We have been stuck in an endless political gridlock in which no one on each side of the aisle is willing to cooperate and accomplish something or even fix the problems that have been infecting America for many years, problems like expensive healthcare, inadequate education, wealth inequality, billionaire influence over our political system and elections, homelessness and joblessness, and the decline of American manufacturing.

We are losing and Americans need to realize this. We are not the greatest country in the world anymore. We are like any other nation in history, ignorant and arrogant, vulnerable to disunity and failure. But, like any other nation, we can be greater, more prosperous, and stronger. But, in order to do this, everyone must notice and learn from our failures and be on the same ship, for if we break that ship apart then we will drown in that sea of our predecessors’ demise.