I'm not sure if we would all feel that safe sharing that sentiment in an internet run by China. West might be failing in a lot of things, but it is best we have.

I'm only posting this because I never intend to visit American soil. Otherwise I wouldn't dare. Because I know that these kinds of messages might be connected to my person and used against me if I ever come in conflict with American enforcement.

How would you know what it was like in America if you’ve never even visited?

What kind of an argument is that? Rhetorical question. We're talking about China here. Have all the people commenting here lived in China? Also a rhetorical question.

I've visited China a few times. Am I allowed to have an opinion?

I read and watch.

So basically your knowledge of the United States comes from its least common situations?

Remember that normal everyday life is never reported. Only unusual and non-typical things are reported.

So what you're saying is your knowledge of the United States is exactly opposite of what normal life is actually like there.

Normal everyday life can be seen in statistics like child mortality, obesity, health care coverage, percentage of prison populations, number of gun deaths, prevalence of lead paint and piping, education stats and so on and so on.

I know United States is large and varied country and for some people in some places it's wonderful, but I'm sure same can be said about China or most other countries.

You should try living there.

I'm sure there are wonderful people and things and places but those are everywhere. Those are not the things that are different in USA. USA is exceptional in other ways. A lot of them very bad.

Maybe, but what's your argument here? That there's a zero-sum game of one or the other, and that nothing can be done to contain any nastiness? That all alternatives are equally bad? You seem to imply a lot, it would be helpful to actually know what you mean.

My argument is that previous poster has no argument when he proposes that USA should confront China and win. He proposed it as a zero sum game which I don't agree with. I think there should be no hastened confrontation because both sides are strongly pathological so probably neither should win all right now. Also I don't believe USA can win anything anymore because it struggles even in minor conflicts and lost all support and trust of global community more than decade ago. I don't see USA becoming less dysfunctional because it had every opportunity and didn't improve. I'm more optimistic about China because we have seen that communism can fall. I know it's a stretch hoping that for China but since post world war ii period we never seen USA improve its behavior.

Here's some news for you: China is the new USA, just more blatant and duplicitous at the same time.