Some years ago I was listening to a radio station and they were interviewing a guy who wrote a book about how the Chinese will takes us over. One thing he said really stuck with me. He said we think in terms of a quarter of a year. Everything we do relies on quarterly numbers and that is how we judge success or failure.
The Chinese think in terms of a quarter of a CENTURY. Slow and methodical. Bits at a time.
The Chinese have no experience in foreign involvement. They think every group of people will respond like the Chinese. So when they try to colonialize an African country, they discover Africans don’t respond like they thought they would. The first time some Latin American dictator takes over a Chinese facility, they won’t know what to do.
Also remember their armed forces are made up entirely of only children who weren’t able to avoid military service.
And we are no dullards about long term strategy either. For example, as the late historian John Keegan found, in the late 1920s, when open cockpit flying was still common, young Army air warfare college student officers were writing term papers that conceived of the multi engine long range bombers, strategy, and target lists needed to smash Japan into submission in the 1940s. If the sons of the Dragon Empire had more sense they would quaver at the prospect of taking on the USA.