It is not about philosophical cultural differences.
It is all about the facts on the ground.
- biggest manufacturing base in the world
- largest trading nation in the world
- biggest creditor nation and who is biggest debtor nation
- fastest growing large economy in the world
- first to implement 5G network for next industrial revolution
- no nation graduates more STEM people
- still expanding international footprint with BRI, RCEP, etc ...
There is probably a lot more, but that would be too long a list.
Then to top it all off, that other nation is printing money.
You are polite brother, and you give other people face.
The way the Chinese leadership sees it, and they are correct in my estimation, the Americans are on the back foot and shrinking. The Americans cannot speak from a position of strength anymore.
China has to adjust to that new reality. Whether the Americans will adjust to that new reality, that essentially is their problem.
If the Chinese catch up with the semiconductors, there is no area left in the industrial world that the United States has a real advantage. Chang sifu said they were only 1 generation behind.
If semiconductors was a horse race, 1 generation behind is only 1 length behind the front-runner.
Semiconductors is the last bastions of American industrial leadership. Lose that, and the Americans will only have world leading cultural products, such as lawyers, TV shows, and Black Lives Matter.