As 2026 approaches, the U.S. media outlet "Bloomberg Businessweek" recently published an article reviewing Sino-U.S. relations in 2025.

The article's point is simple and straightforward: a large amount of evidence shows that China will not fall into the "trap" that some Americans have been promoting — and the United States should abandon the idea of "beating China."

This article, written by Bloomberg reporter Christopher Beam, starts with this year's most closely watched Sino-U.S. trade disputes, pointing out that in April, the U.S. was confident that China would lose, but in the following months, people found that it was actually the U.S. that was bluffing, while China demonstrated its strength in this contest.

Scholars also believe that this contest has also proven that, under a system different from that of the United States, China can still nurture a viable and sustainable development model.

(Figure: The article from Bloomberg Businessweek)

But where did the U.S.'s previous blind confidence in defeating China come from?

According to Beam, some people in the U.S. have long held a "habitual mindset" towards China, believing that the rapidly developing China will face a "trouble" or even "collapse" at a certain period.

"This view is becoming increasingly untenable because China's performance in many areas is simply too impressive," Beam wrote, "those who are determined to see China suffer must accept a reality: China is a strong competitor — and will continue to develop its already considerable advantages, especially in areas that shape future patterns such as electric vehicles, clean energy, and robot technology."

A direct chart posted by Beam also shows that although China's GDP still lags behind that of the United States, in many key areas related to future development, such as rare earth production, solar power capacity, number of electric vehicles, and industrial robots, China has taken a significant lead.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in Congress stated in a recent report that China is among the world leaders in quantum communication, and is making rapid progress in quantum computing and quantum sensing.

(Figure: The article from Bloomberg Businessweek)

Beam also said that China has been working hard on the chip issue. A recent exclusive report by Reuters claimed that China is fully committed to overcoming the technical challenges of lithography machines.

(Figure: Reuters' report)

Aside from technology and trade, Beam also discussed the military strength of the U.S. and China. He said that although the U.S. still has the strongest army in the world, China is catching up. In shipbuilding, the level of China's latest aircraft carrier is no longer negligible.

Additionally, although Beam also mentioned the challenges China currently faces in economic and population issues, he pointed out that the Chinese government's "14th Five-Year Plan" is drawing a blueprint to address these issues.

Finally, Beam said that today's China is forcing the U.S. to "soften" its perception of China. At the same time, China's soft power, such as the popular TikTok social platform in the U.S., the Rububu dolls, the experience of American travel bloggers taking China's high-speed rail, tasting hot pot, and experiencing robots, as well as the safety and political stability compared to the chaos of U.S. politics, are attracting Americans, winning their recognition, and touching their nerves.

"No matter what the reason, Americans seem to be re-evaluating China's position in the world," Beam wrote in the last paragraph of the article, "It's about time to do so."

Currently, this article has not only caused a lot of positive reactions among American netizens, who believe that the U.S. should cooperate more with China, but also attracted attention from Japanese netizens.

One Japanese netizen lamented that while Americans are rethinking how to deal with China, Japan's right-wing forces still want to incite hostility against a giant they can't even move, and their thinking is truly outdated.

Gengzhi Ge

Original: toutiao.com/article/7585232940884329003/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author."