Gotta wonder the point behind all of these "China does a thing better than the U.S." stories is.

Are we in some sort of competition with China? I mean more so than usual.

Yeah, speedrunning totalitarianism

Spamoflage / dragon bridge is where you’d start your search for the answer.

Basically, it’s deliberately done

we will see when we see results like actual verifiable peer-reviewed data from legitimate sources.

It shows that China is challenging the American hegemony and America's cultural clout is decreasing. Whether it's a competition is in the eye of the beholder. Articles saying "China is outpacing the US in whatever" are making the observation that America, a nation that's used to banking on its reputation for being a top tier innovator in everything from tech to entertainment, is losing that ability if not straight up giving it away.

It shows how much our own investment has cratered. Costs for research are higher here for materials and wages, yet they’re still outspending the US now.