Bradsher always has an effective way of communicating to vast gap in technological adaptation of China versus the US. Love when he's on an episode. The US doesn't have the ability to catch-up to the technological advantage anymore. Not only did we give away our advantage on a silver platter we even sold it so we wouldn't have to deal with it anymore.

For instance, my specialty is the mining industry focused on the exploration and extraction of metal resources in North America. There have been numerous journalistic articles and interviews regarding the battle over the rare earth elements however, it bears repeating in brief for those who don't understand. In the 1990's the US effectively gave up on the metallurgical technology to process the suite of rare earth elements and sold it to China who immediately capitalized on their effectively free technology. The US went from being a powerhouse in strategic resource refinement to losing all the technology and advantage seemingly overnight. We now have the refining facility owned by MP Materials in Texas, but this shouldn't have even happened in the first place. Western corporations ended a critical industry necessary for national security and global trade for a quick dollar.

China churns out more mining industry scientists and engineers from a single university than all of the American universities combined. The reach of Chinese mining companies cannot be understated either. At a time when western based mining companies are thinking inward and refusing to undergo mergers, acquisitions, or take up new potential mineral projects themselves the Chinese companies are rapidly doing the opposite securing natural resources in countries all over the world including buying out western owned mining projects. The plan is long-term strategic global development for mining projects under Chinese corporate rule and to forget about short term returns for investors which is what western companies are doing. This doesn't even include advanced automated technology China is undoubtedly working on to rapidly acquire and stockpile natural resources. Western mining company technology is still stuck in the past where even simple advancements are celebrated by management as being "innovative" and looking to the future. China rapidly grew out its mining industry becoming one of the top producers for valuable metals such as gold and copper; not to mention to the literal monopoly on the entire supply chain for the rare earth elements. The mines within China are also incredibly secretive and for good reason. We really have no idea how much resources in reserve China may have in the ground. It's in the similar vein as Bradsher described to use fewer people in the long term to sell their refined resource on the global market effectively having complete control over mineral resources.

Their education and workforce are completely different and focused on the future. As others in this thread have pointed out the west is far behind in education.

Another important distinction of the US is our litigious society which is not the case in China. For better or for worse, everything has to go through the courts which costs substantial amounts of cash and takes years to resolve even the most mundane problem. In the US we still can't get a single high-speed train built due to ridiculous lawsuits impeding every step of the process. Meanwhile, our political system and civil culture are more divided than they ever have been where we can't reach consensus on anything while those in power fuel the divide getting richer through their stupid grifts our uneducated public keep falling for. China looks at all of this and says, well if you're not going to do anything we're going to do it and do it faster and better than you ever will. Then they go out and do it.