America always talks shit about China, but China just makes shit and barely talks about America at all. It's a bit embarrassing, don't you think? You spend all your time hating on someone, and they don't bother to hate on you in return. America gets no shout-outs in China's latest Five-Year Plan, not even in opprobrium. All China says, obliquely, is “A profound shift is taking place in the international balance of power,” while America violently loses its shit about the same situation. China continues, “Breakthroughs are accelerating in the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation,” while America is deindustrializing Europe and trying to defibrillate its economy with an AI bubble. These nations are not the same and you can see it on the page. China's sticking to its vision, while America is lashing out in a blind rage.

American policy has been desperately trying to reorient to China since the Obama era at least, but they can't get there through all the still smoldering conflagrations of history. They desperately want to write a new chapter of imperialism against a worthy enemy, but are stuck doing reboots of war with Russia and genocides in the Middle East. In response to America's retardation and Europe's deindustrialization and the whole White Empire's disintegration, China only position is, “All this has created positive factors enabling China to make proactive moves in the international arena and shape a favorable external environment.” Or as Napoleon said, when your opponent is defeating themselves, let them be.

While the White Empire is distracted to disintegration with multiple land wars in Asia, China is fighting no one and focused on improving life for its own citizens. This leads to very different outlooks and very different documents. American policy documents are very Empire focused and they're desperate to restart the Cold War, with China as the new red scare to drive new spending. China, on the other hand, just doesn't think like this. They're focused on their own business.

As Chairman Xi said in his notes on the Five-Year Plan, “We must work to strengthen the domestic economy and boost domestic economic flows, so as to leverage the stability of the domestic economy as a hedge against uncertainties in the international economy.” While America is trying to tax everyone else's economy through tariffs (though Americans end up paying them) China is just trying to develop their own country. While America is trying to bomb other people's infrastructure to smithereens, China is building. These are very different visions. At this point, America is just hating and most infuriatingly for a hater, China is mostly ignoring them.

Of course, China does talk about America indirectly. We all know who they're talking about when they say, “We should promote an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization, expand our global network of partnerships, and foster a new type of international relations.” And we all know who they're opposing when they say, “We must resolutely oppose all hegemonic, high-handed, and bullying acts, defend international fairness and justice, and safeguard the common interests of people around the world.” However, China does not name names, which for America is a bit embarrassing. Trump is really trying to get everyone's attention by acting ratchet, but China is just slowly turning the screws.

The fact is that there is no great power competition this century. There is a great cannibalization of the White Empire, as America devours Europe and other vassals, and—on the other hand—a great liberation of Asia, as China, Russia, and Palestine rebel, either violently or silently. America is, of course, dying to for some Chinese-on-Chinese violence, like it couped its way to Slav-on-Slav violence in Ukraine, but China's not playing. If you listen to China's statements on the province of Taiwan, they sound quite neighborly and patient.

On Taiwan there's only a paragraph, and this is half of it. China says, “[We must] oppose external interference, safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and firmly maintain the initiative and the ability to steer in cross-Strait relations. Exchanges and cooperation across the Strait should be deepened and people on both sides should work together to preserve and carry forward Chinese culture.” China knows what everyone defeating America for the past 50 years knows, that you can just wait.

All of this must make America irate. America doesn't have five-year plans of course, they like to change governments every four years or so, so oligarchs can rule above the fray. But they do produce a lot of reports, which all talk about China as a ‘pacing threat’ for their military or a ‘peer competitor’ in AI or technology, and China does not talk about them this way, which must be infuriating.

In military matters China says, “The principle of building the armed forces through diligence and thrift must be fully implemented to ensure that military development is efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable.” That's not how America talks about their military, they just shovel money at it. But China already knows that their military is technically superior to America's, if unblooded, and they have no need to inflate their military budget because they're uncorrupted by blood money.

In AI matters, which is not the main matter, China says, “We should accelerate innovation in digital and intelligent technologies such as AI, make breakthroughs in basic theories and core technologies, and ensure more efficient supply of computing power, algorithms, and data.” China already proved that you can make AI more efficiently with DeepSeek, but OpenAI is pretending that never happened, to keep up their GPU grift. But China has no need to inflate an AI bubble because they're also not corrupted by tech money.

As you can see, and as I've said, these things are not the same. America's goal is world domination, while China simply says, “Meeting the people’s aspirations for a better life is the immutable goal of Chinese modernization.” These are very different propositions. In many ways, America is talking past China. China isn't trying to overthrow America, they're just trying to grow their own civilization back to the relative position they were in before colonization. Meanwhile America is overthrowing itself by having such a violent conniption, in every direction. America is desperately trying to talk shit about China, but China is just not paying attention and walking right past them. It's like Don Draper taking the elevator with Ginsberg, in the TV show Mad Men. The copywriter Ginsberg says “I feel bad for you” and the Creative Director Draper says, “I don't think about you at all.”