Under the hood

The split-layout reader: text left (Courier field-note, H1, dek, TL;DR box, MDX body, FAQ, prev/next), placeholder images right; stacks to one column under 760px. MDX is compiled server-side with remark-gfm so tables render. Emits Article + FAQPage JSON-LD.

import type { Metadata } from 'next';
import type { ComponentProps } from 'react';
import Link from 'next/link';
import { notFound } from 'next/navigation';
import { MDXRemote } from 'next-mdx-remote/rsc';
import remarkGfm from 'remark-gfm';

import { Jsonld } from '@/components/Jsonld';
import { UpdatedStamp } from '@/components/UpdatedStamp';
import { ArticleReaderShell, Fig } from '@/components/articles/figure-sync';
import { PageFrame } from '@/components/shell/PageFrame';
import { getAllArticles, getArticle, type Article } from '@/lib/content';
import type { CodeRef, TaggingData } from '@/lib/lens';
import { normalizeView } from '@/lib/lens';
import { absoluteUrl, articleJsonLd, faqJsonLd, pageMetadata, type JsonLd } from '@/lib/seo';

import styles from './reader.module.css';

const mdxOptions = { mdxOptions: { remarkPlugins: [remarkGfm] } } as const;

/** External links open in a new tab; internal ones don't. */
function MdxLink({ href = '', ...props }: ComponentProps<'a'>) {
  const external = /^https?:\/\//.test(href);
  return <a href={href} {...(external ? { target: '_blank', rel: 'noreferrer' } : {})} {...props} />;
}

const mdxComponents = { Fig, a: MdxLink };

export function generateStaticParams() {
  return getAllArticles().map((a) => ({ slug: a.slug }));
}

export async function generateMetadata({
  params,
}: {
  params: Promise<{ slug: string }>;
}): Promise<Metadata> {
  const { slug } = await params;
  const article = getArticle(slug);
  if (!article) return {};
  return pageMetadata({
    title: article.title,
    description: article.dek || article.tldr || article.title,
    path: `/articles/${article.slug}`,
    type: 'article',
    publishedTime: article.date,
    modifiedTime: article.updated ?? article.date,
  });
}

/** Neighbouring articles (newest-first list) for the prev/next pager. */
function neighbours(slug: string) {
  const all = getAllArticles();
  const idx = all.findIndex((a) => a.slug === slug);
  return {
    index: idx,
    total: all.length,
    prev: idx > 0 ? all[idx - 1] : null,
    next: idx >= 0 && idx < all.length - 1 ? all[idx + 1] : null,
  };
}

function Reader({ article }: { article: Article }) {
  const { index, total, prev, next } = neighbours(article.slug);
  const fieldNo = String(total - index).padStart(2, '0');
  const year = article.date.slice(0, 4);

  const left = (
    <>
      <div className={styles.fieldnote}>
        Field note {fieldNo} — {year}
      </div>
      <h1 className={styles.h1}>{article.title}</h1>
      {article.dek ? <div className={styles.dek}>{article.dek}</div> : null}

      {article.tldr ? (
        <div className={styles.tldr}>
          <div className={styles.tldrLabel}>TL;DR</div>
          <p className={styles.tldrText}>{article.tldr}</p>
        </div>
      ) : null}

      <div className={styles.prose}>
        {/* @ts-expect-error Async Server Component */}
        <MDXRemote source={article.content} options={mdxOptions} components={mdxComponents} />

        {article.faq && article.faq.length > 0 ? (
          <>
            <h2>FAQ</h2>
            {article.faq.map((f, i) => (
              <div key={i}>
                <h3>{f.question}</h3>
                <p>{f.answer}</p>
              </div>
            ))}
          </>
        ) : null}
      </div>

      <div className={styles.pager}>
        {prev ? (
          <Link href={`/articles/${prev.slug}`}>← {prev.title}</Link>
        ) : (
          <span className={styles.pagerSpacer}>—</span>
        )}
        <Link href="/articles">index</Link>
        {next ? (
          <Link href={`/articles/${next.slug}`}>{next.title} →</Link>
        ) : (
          <span className={styles.pagerSpacer}>—</span>
        )}
      </div>

      <div style={{ marginTop: 18 }} className={styles.fieldnote}>
        {article.updated ? <UpdatedStamp date={article.updated} /> : null}
      </div>
    </>
  );

  return (
    <div className={styles.root}>
      <ArticleReaderShell left={left} />
    </div>
  );
}

export default async function ArticleReaderPage({
  params,
  searchParams,
}: {
  params: Promise<{ slug: string }>;
  searchParams: Promise<{ view?: string }>;
}) {
  const { slug } = await params;
  const { view: rawView } = await searchParams;
  const view = normalizeView(rawView);

  const article = getArticle(slug);
  if (!article) notFound();

  const path = `/articles/${article.slug}`;
  const jsonLd: JsonLd[] = [
    articleJsonLd({
      title: article.title,
      description: article.dek || article.tldr || article.title,
      path,
      datePublished: article.date,
      dateModified: article.updated,
      techArticle: article.techArticle,
    }),
  ];
  if (article.faq && article.faq.length > 0) {
    jsonLd.push(faqJsonLd(article.faq));
  }

  const headings: TaggingData['headings'] = [{ level: 1, text: article.title }];
  for (const line of article.content.split('\n')) {
    if (line.startsWith('## ')) headings.push({ level: 2, text: line.slice(3).trim() });
    else if (line.startsWith('### ')) headings.push({ level: 3, text: line.slice(4).trim() });
  }
  if (article.faq?.length) headings.push({ level: 2, text: 'FAQ' });

  const tagging: TaggingData = {
    title: article.title,
    description: article.dek || article.tldr || article.title,
    canonical: absoluteUrl(path),
    updated: article.updated ?? article.date,
    headings,
    jsonLd,
  };

  const code: CodeRef[] = [
    {
      title: 'Article reader',
      file: 'app/articles/[slug]/page.tsx',
      explanation:
        'The split-layout reader: text left (Courier field-note, H1, dek, TL;DR box, MDX body, FAQ, prev/next), placeholder images right; stacks to one column under 760px. MDX is compiled server-side with remark-gfm so tables render. Emits Article + FAQPage JSON-LD.',
    },
    {
      title: `${article.slug}.mdx`,
      file: `content/articles/${article.slug}.mdx`,
      explanation:
        'The article itself — frontmatter (title, dek, tldr, dates, tags, faq) plus the MDX body. This file is the whole article; the reader is just its frame.',
    },
  ];

  return (
    <>
      <Jsonld data={jsonLd} />
      <PageFrame
        view={view}
        basePath={path}
        content={<Reader article={article} />}
        tagging={tagging}
        code={code}
      />
    </>
  );
}

The article itself — frontmatter (title, dek, tldr, dates, tags, faq) plus the MDX body. This file is the whole article; the reader is just its frame.

---
title: "China vs USA, long term vs short term, governments & economies"
slug: china-vs-usa
dek: "A non-expert wanders through pollution, AI and the Uyghurs to circle one question: does the long-term thinking of the Chinese government let it sidestep what trips everyone else up?"
date: 2026-06-19
updated: 2026-06-19
author: kaspirius
tags: [china, usa, politics, economics, essay]
hero: /articles/china-vs-usa/hero.jpg
---

I shan’t claim to be an expert on any of these matters. I did study international economics as my bachelor but by no means do I think that gives me merit to speak on the topic.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/hero.jpg" cover alt="China and the USA face to face" caption="China vs USA" />

I do sometimes wonder at what point do people feel like they have merit to speak on a topic? I’ve worked within the space of AI for 2 years and would feel audacious adding my opinions on the matter to the public sphere (that feeling won’t stop me on this site but alas). I’ve worked within the space of insurance for 5 years and know I would find my foot in my mouth at an insurance conference but a scholar amongst men when discussing with friends and family. So to my question, at what point? I guess the point where you stop caring what people think as much.

A couple of months ago, I read the book “On Xi Jinping” which explores the topic of “How Xi’s marxist nationalism is shaping china and the world”. It was an interesting read, I don’t think it covers every single topic, I think its missing a bit of the modern discourse (Hasan glazing China, the inevitable indirect support for China as an adversary to a larger foe Trump, the enjoyment of culture and entertainment from this region creating bias in discussions, etc) but it was an interesting read to discuss the political frameworks and perspectives of the development of china as a nation.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/xi-book.jpg" alt="The cover of On Xi Jinping by Kevin Rudd" caption="“On Xi Jinping”" />

As I was looking at the book at my local Waterstones (British Bookstore), I recall looking at the back and laughing to myself. Seeing the line by Joseph S. Nye (Author of *A Life in the American Century*) saying “No one is better placed than Kevin Rudd to answer these questions.” (In reference to the referenced topic above). I couldn’t help but release a minor giggle in the bookstore as I read the author being a guy named Kevin Rudd.

I was like really, a pastel white dude is the best guy positioned to answer questions about China? What about a Chinese guy? But, alas, you shall never judge a book by its cover as Kevin Rudd was the former prime minister of Australia and former foreign minister of Australia who obviously had a lot of interactions and topics with the Chinese government. You win this time. Perhaps a man who can feel they have the merit to speak on a topic, although maybe as I experience imposter syndrome with things Ive spent years on, he does the same? The world may never know

Anywho, I shall explore this topic in a couple of lenses. I don’t expect there to be a single answer, hence the title of this write up does not include a question. But if there were a question, it would be: does the long term thinking of the Chinese government allow it to sidestep issues faced in other countries?

Firstly, I’m going to look at pollution statistics (bear with me).

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/pollution.jpg" alt="Industrial pollution" caption="pollution, then" />

Then I shall talk about AI & Technology (Fuck me what a dead horse). I shall then discuss the treatment of Uyghurs (I bet you had forgotten about that). Before adding some unsubstantiated thoughts and opinions attempting to tie them all together, before deciding against publishing this at all and then randomly publishing it because the fear of not posting something when I have created the implied expectation I would (the articles section of my site being a form of chechovs gun) and then you reading this to allow yourself a moment to judge me. Thank you for taking the time to read it either way.

## Pollution

Im talking pollution as I feel in my lifetime, it’s a discussion that has changed drastically. I remember learning about reduce, reuse, recycle (and seems like most of the conversation has fallen on the least impactful tenant, recycle, and forgotten the rest) but alas, we were in a class room making signs to put over the recycling bins. This was early 2000’s. Honestly, I probably went home to show my arts and crafts to my parents as they watched the tv and learned of the devastating impact of the financial crisis. Twas a hard thing to grab attention from.

but even in recent times, there is a certain juxtaposition in discussion around china & pollution. There was an argument I saw critiquing the Chinese government for polluting. How their growth is killing the world around us and how that makes them the big bad guy. The counter point to that, is now looking at the renewable energy investment and spend in the region, absolutely scales above the rest of the world.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/renewables.jpg" alt="Renewable energy infrastructure" caption="renewables, now" />

Yes they are also investing in other energy sources, but they are clearly ahead in their renewable energy investments. I mean consider the market impact of solar, 15 years ago solar was an expensive problem that was absolutely wasteful in terms of inputs and amount of energy generated. But targeted focus and implementation (please subscribe and also watch [asianometry on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoCoPmtNRJo)) has lead it to becoming cheaper, more efficient and are more competitive option than ever before.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/co2-emissions.png" alt="A chart of CO2 emissions by region over time" caption="CO₂ emissions over time" />

if we look at the amount of CO2 emissions, it feels like there is a clear story being shown here. The amount of pollution is going up (I dont think anyone really should be arguing against this fact anymore) and the share that china emits has gone up rapidly in comparison.

there is a social argument here that dictates china has a right to pollute now since other countries polluted to (for far less output). Think about the pictures you saw in school about the Industrial Revolution and the smog and filth that came along with it. The chart doesn’t really show that has a high amount, were we more efficient then? I doubt it, not the point.

I do think there is an interesting concept here. I recall seeing it a lot around Brazilian Beef (I know, I can switch topics like nobody else) but this critique coming from European and western countries being like “you gotta save the rain forest, do not compete in that specific field” but then considering the fact that before US or European societies, I doubt the amount of land taken up by farming was just empty fields (twas forests and nature). Can we now look at china and say hey, don’t use the coal you have. I know Germany did but now we are smarter and wiser and don’t? (Except Germany is actually still incredibly heavy on coal).

it almost feels like this conceptual raising of the ladder behind you. We grew a certain way, and learned the lesson. We have the fruits of our labour provided to us from that way, but we will now pull the ladder to expect you to do otherwise.

and then the giant elephant in this room. Pollution figures from manufacturing and industry has just been shifted. An American perspective on capitalism has lead to manufacturing to be moved to china. Where is the emission calculated when I buy an iPhone? From the consumption of the product that emitted in Europe? The production of the product in china? Or the collection of the raw materials in Africa? I am no expert, my point in exploring this is not to provide an answer but to support a form of reasonable questioning. I think atleast.

I dont say any of these points above trying to rationalise pollution. But I do want to highlight that nothing is quite as simple as it seems on the surface. Every chart, data point, and topic comes with a bias. People have been talking about lot about bias in our next topic (oh my god what a segue)

## AI & Technology

I feel like AI was a primarily western topic for a good year or so. I dont have the dates, but for a while it seemed like the western companies were way ahead of the game. In my head, this changed entirely upon the fantastic marketing that came around the Deepseek models.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/deepseek.jpg" alt="DeepSeek" caption="the DeepSeek moment" />

Deepseek was a model created by a Chinese hedge fund. Not exactly the company you’d expect to come out with a huge open source model. But I guess it depends on what perspective you come from. Was it a genuine entry into a new market? Was it a marketing ploy to short / influence stock markets around the world to state “hey that thing you spent billions on? Yeah we did it much cheaper”, leading to a market opportunity in trading. Or was it the start of a more philosophical question?

China has often been targeted in conversations for cheap fakes and imitations. Lack of copyright law or patent law has made it known as a bit of a Wild West in terms of innovation and implementation. There are discussions around the fact that deepseek and other Chinese models use a form of federated learning to train their models. Using one model to answer Q&A and provide input to another model.

so If I got a claude subscription, starting doing inference training on an open source model like Llama, and let them have a conversation with each other while training the open source model to reflect answers. I dont know, I dont really care right now.

but its funny to look at the situation and think to yourself, wow this new technology, AI, which breaches privacy and data and copyright for training materials has just been bamboozled by the exact same thing. I mean while there are people suing open ai and others for their copyright breaches, you aren’t gonna have the same luck in china with deepseek.

now I actually played around with deepseek myself. And before I tackle the obvious, I will say, it didnt quite live up to expectations for me. There is more to the deployment of a model than the model itself, the frameworks, structure, etc. It’s like me saying the text above is a political paper vs an actual political paper. But I will say I feel its more of a marketing ploy by a hedge fund than an actual attempt to enter the market, as we can see by other competitors like Kimi taking the real marketshare of the Chinese open source AI market.

but the obvious? Well it had clear censorship built into it. You couldn’t critique Xi, couldn’t talk about a certain event that didn’t happen in 1989. And to that I say, you think your existing models come without bias? You think that the chosen inputs and outputs of a private companies models won’t come with bias? Its like going on reddit and not expecting and overwhelming amount of americanised references and news.

I mean if we look here, we can say that there are cases where a model is just [wrong](https://news.sky.com/story/openais-chatgpt-stops-answering-questions-on-election-results-after-wrong-answers-13148929). Is purposeful censorship worse or better than being wrong? On the surface, you’d say worse. But with the way people are using their ai systems (search up people talking about their AI girlfriends or ai psychosis), id rather it censors than it being wrong.

I mean, and not only is it wrong sometimes, there is a [clear bias](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/02/03/is-chatgpt-partisan-poems-about-trump-and-biden-raise-questions-about-the-ai-bots-bias-heres-what-experts-think/). Just like deepseek wanting government support (and in doing so, following government regulation on freespeech in China) I mean there is clear mismanagement of the AI to when it allows itself to be politically active and when it doesn’t. I’d almost prefer it to say “I am censored on this topic” than to sometimes indulge and sometimes not (like me with ice cream, im lactose intolerant, I dont like sweet things BUT SOMETIMES THAT SHIT JUST HITS YO).

I wont talk about EV’s. Getting into discussions on tariffs, the concept of free market capitalism with geolocation protection and the aspect of consumer rights is difficult. Too many layers, not enough time or knowledge for today.

## Uyghurs

I won’t get into the history. I will quickly state that I do not support reeducation camps or internment of people or the discrimination of people based on region, religion, race or otherwise. Ive seen an argument online being like: well the US was bad against native Americans, so China gets a freebie. I mean what the fuck are we talking about right now. The entire conversation around china and the rest of the world is absolutely littered with this whataboutisms.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/whataboutism.jpg" alt="A cartoon about whataboutism" caption="whataboutism" />

I will take that argument a level deeper. I went to school in British Columbia, Canada, where the discussion around indigenous rights and values is far closer to the front and center of discussions than many other places around the world. And learning about the treatment of said people in Canada, the role of the church and the residential school systems was shocking to me, and an importance of reconciliation is important.

but that last term has always sat funny with me. Reconciliation. I’d be sitting in a lecture hall, about to listen to a presenter who gives a land acknowledgement stating that we are sitting on the land of a certain tribe. Do you fucking think that helps at all? Who is that helping? Are we paying them taxes? No. Do they have land rights? No. Okay so are we just bragging then?

Anywho, to take this one step further, if we acknowledge the need for reconciliation and we acknowledge how “done dirty” they were in the past, then sitting on inaction is actually a perpetuation of the problem. We can not speak in regrets and wishes for undoing bads of the past when we have the means to solve them now.

And in that case, the argument about the freebie and the US bad China Good or whatever, takes a different lens. How can we critique the handling of one ethnicity based cultural genocide when we are still perpetuating the same issues today? And I heard a lot of the argument being why should modern canadians pay for mistakes of the past, well because you are still gaining from them.

holyfuck I am just switching topics like nothing else.

lets get back to the topic at hand here, what the hell is actually being done? it was interesting to me while this was in the public discourse, the lack of condemnation from muslim majority countries. I guess the dollar bill (or yuan) in this case, is more important. I mean even with the US, they did add the Uyghur Human Rights Policy act, but alas trade continues. And China for the most part has just kept going business as usual and life goes on.

lastly, the US industrial prison complex has more people imprisoned than there are Uyghurs in camps. Infact, it has more than the Chinese Prison system actually, even if the population is far less in the US. I genuinely do not know how to make a point about this that makes sense, so I will leave it here as a fragmented topic sentence.

I think people my age and in the public discourse tend to forget about timelines here. the last residential school in canada was only closed in the 90s. the united states government BOMBED a city neighbourhood in philadelphia in 1985. your grandparents were alive to see african americans get voting rights in the US.

## Long story short

its difficult to be an ethical consumer on the world nowadays. Nothing is ever black or white and freedom of information is supposed to help us make decisions. Provides us with the means to take positions in matters of politics, ethics and human matters. but its impossible for anyone to get a meaningful understanding of whats okay, and what isn’t okay and how we derive the answers to get there.

China is a powerhouse of a nation. Just as the United states is. But there was actually something in my title that I haven’t tackled directly yet. And it is this question around long term versus short term decision making.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/china-us.jpg" alt="An illustration of China and the USA" caption="long term vs short term" />

China can move resources, do reforms, change direction or importance from a centralized approach and allow local governments to achieve those goals. There is no 4 year election cycle. There is no culture war discourse. there is no distractions. If we look at the pollution, I am sure that the chinese government is aware of the problems that arises but they also know that they can solve it. The huge amount of renewable energy investment is not done for no reason. They were willing to invest in an industry that was early stage because they knew they could become market dominant with enough time. AND they knew the political will would continue to be there after time.

In the US we see politicians cancel the projects of their predecessors. You can quite literally see scenarios of people running purely on the basis to cancel progress (doing something is progress regardless whether you believe in it).

this continues to the technology aspect. the firms know that the government has their back and they can expect the support to continue to grow. So they shall.

You look at the treatment of the Uyghurs, its not a random decision to tackle culture war discourse in china, its an active decisions to try to ensure that the mindset of their people is one. They do not want to cater to millions of different mindsets, they want to cater to one (the Han Chinese one that is). And their focus on education, moving Han Chinese to the outer regions of china is purely done with that in mind. It’s an extremist approach to nipping a potential problem in the bud.

both of these countries can not be described or specified by a single factor action or policy. however, I do think that a major trait that can explain the actions, progress and development of these two countries is the difference in long term thinking.

does this mean I think the US should not hold elections? I mean if we go to one of my favourite political spaces, the benevolent dictator, perhaps they should. but just like being able to compare these two countries in any meaningful way is an impossibility, the reality is that a benevolent dictator is a concept not a reality.

and its not to say that the US has never had a long term political perspective. The US military complex, the petro-dollar and the entertainment and cultural hub that is the united states is not by mistake. These are long term decisions that are playing a role today, to varying degrees of success. As we see the first oil payments being taken in the yuan, the question remains whether the united states can hold onto its ability to perpetuate conversations on the topic or if the chinese will be able to steal the show.

<Fig src="/articles/china-vs-usa/ai-1.png" src2="/articles/china-vs-usa/ai-2.png" alt="The same question put to two AI models — ChatGPT answers USA, DeepSeek answers China" caption="same question, single word, no hedging — ChatGPT (top) · DeepSeek (bottom)" />

> editors note: this article, despite the sensitive topic, does not provide as much research as my other articles do. I find it absolutely impossible to find brass tacks information online about china and the us. Sites ending in .cn glaze china, US papers hitting me with a “US #1” and online public discourse is what it always is. I also did not discuss the role of the US in Palestine & Israel and the irony of condemning the actions against uyghurs in china while perpetuating genocide in the Palestine.
>
> However, as is customary, we must ask AI, where the answers speak for themselves.