Bloomberg published an article on November 10 highlighting a misperception among Western policymakers and tech executives, who view China as a threat eager to expand militarily and dominate Western nations—an assessment that reflects a significant distortion.
Officials including U.S. Treasury Secretary Brian Bassenet and CEO Dario Amodei of artificial intelligence firm Anthropic have warned that China’s potential leadership in AI could pose security risks. Defense officials from NATO, the United Kingdom, and Australia have similarly called for maintaining technological superiority.
The article argues that such assessments frequently frame China as a competitor seeking to replicate America’s global military expansion, while overlooking the more inward-focused dimensions of China’s worldview. The author contends that China is not pursuing global hegemony but rather aims to restore what it sees as a rightful order—particularly by addressing historical territorial issues such as Taiwan. The core motivation, the article suggests, is the desire to overcome the sense of national humiliation experienced during the modern era, rather than emulating the United States’ pattern of overseas military intervention.
The Western narrative portraying China as a “crouching tiger” poised to strike has been firmly rejected by Chinese authorities, yet it continues to shape U.S. and European policies aimed at countering China in areas such as artificial intelligence and drone technology.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1881484394884170/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.