zlacker

> What confuses me is that Western media often portray China as a threat, while Chinese mainstream media exaggerate these reports, deepening mutual hatred

There is a mutual lack of trust and dialogue amongst Chinese and American decisonmakwrs - most of whom started their careers in the late 1980s/early 1990s and thus lack modern in-depth experience in the West or China respectively.

Both the Trump and Xi admins both bled competent advisers at the expense of populist and hawkish advisers, which degraded the ability for nuance in both the US and China's policymaking.

Imo, the biggest issues have been the MFA/State Dept and the CMC/DoD in China/US. Both had massive attrition of experienced policymakers in the 2016-19 period, which caused a game of economic brinkmanship.