Comment by rapind

The way I frame it is like the space race (except probably more consequential). China is collaborating with and encouraging their industry, definitely leaning into the state sponsored NASA route, while the United States fully embraced minting oligarchs that they'll most likely bail out later.

We'll see what happens, but I suspect history will show us that the United States badly fumbled what was a pretty great initial lead. China might have just floored the gas pedal.