The next major ideological battle will be for the allegiance of Chinese technologists. The Chinese state will appeal to them based on nationalism and race ('as a Chinese'), while the decentralized internet will appeal to them based on a global, technologist class identity.
Contrary to its capitalist branding, the U.S. economy functions as a Keynesian system. It relies on money printing and implicit market support (a 'plunge protection team') to inflate asset prices and maintain the illusion of growth, masking real-term devaluation.
In 1978, Deng Xiaoping effectively staged a coup by keeping the Communist Party's branding while completely rewiring the country's economic system to a capitalist model. This pivotal but unacknowledged discontinuity from Maoism fueled China's modernization.
The 21st-century geopolitical contest is not a symmetric USA vs. China rivalry, but an asymmetric conflict between China’s vertically integrated state (CCP) and the decentralized internet (BTC). As the U.S. declines, Bitcoin represents a fundamentally different and more resilient alternative order.
China prioritizes industrial growth and physical manufacturing (an engineering mindset), while America focuses on software valuations and financial engineering (a lawyerly mindset). This fundamental difference explains China's rapid dominance in cars, solar, ships, and advanced manufacturing.
Once viewed as purely repressive, China's Great Firewall can be reinterpreted as a strategic creation of 'digital hard borders.' This policy protects national sovereignty by preventing foreign actors from scripting drones, deploying humanoids, or spreading destabilizing memes within its territory.
The US-China competition is a cyclical race where the leader inevitably trips. When one nation gets ahead, it becomes overconfident and makes self-sabotaging mistakes—like China's 2021 tech crackdowns—allowing the other to adapt and catch up. It's a neck-and-neck race driven by hubris.
A key contrast between the U.S. and China lies in the security of wealth. In China, even billionaires can be purged by the state. In the U.S., wealth is more easily converted into political influence and security, making it a safer haven for the ultra-rich, though this creates societal imbalances.
Rather than external competition, the biggest threat to both the U.S. and China is internal self-sabotage. The U.S. is unraveling through political polarization, while China's CCP drives out its best talent through rigid policies. Both nations are adept at 'beating the shit out of themselves.'
It's no longer accurate to speak of a single 'America.' The country has fractured into three distinct entities—Blue America, Red America, and Tech America. Each has its own values, economic base, and potentially divergent foreign policies, much like North and South Korea are two different countries.