However, why/how is the US and EU so good at disinformation? More specifically, domestic/internal perception management in scale and effectivity, but also foreign target disinformation by the US (and EU, although EU is just simply an amplifier, not a source).

I also wonder, whether there are data/research whether this US direct disinformation against foreign actors actually does have the effect it assumes (as in this article). For instance, the Iraq 2002-2003 full scale disinformation definitely fooled and was in its entirety adopted by the Western populations at masse (apart from true journalists who were marginalized as part of this campaign), however, it was not, I submit, accepted by the Iraqi population as true. Iraqi newspapers and population understood that this is just a pretext for war (albeit there is nothing to be done about that, since disinformation is a vector entity with strong power and cultural components). This angle is much more interesting, but probably more tabu to investigate.

The "enemy" (China) is both pathetically weak (at disinformation) and yet dangerously effective (at disinformation).

Where have I seen this pattern before[0,1]?

[0]https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fasci...

[1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26156901

I don't think it said that. It said that China could become dangerously effective.

It is not wise to assume that your enemy is going to remain bumblingly incompetent forever.