Earlier quoted context omitted.
So much is invested in the huge American AI companies that China undercutting them with clones that work almost as well can actually hurt the US economy. They're at the point where copying can get people 90% of what they want anyway, the moat is drying up.
If you remove the word "AI" from your post it also describes the last 20 or so years of US/Chinese economic competition. They are real, serious competitor but also there is a lot of value in that last 10%. Some buyers need the best and you can charge a premium for it. The speed in which a copier can catch up to a leader is faster than every before, but everything is faster these days. I think the threat is if can the…
Only with some industries, mostly electronics and light manufacturing. The rest of the history of software products doesn't look like this at all. China cloned Amazon and Meta fairly well (but only within their local/captured markets) but not Microsoft or Google and absolutely not Apple. Entertainment and culture exports are still effectively zero (like, what, three blockbuster films?) where the US, Japan and Korea define pop across the globe. Heavy industry is mixed, with decent success in consumer vehicles now but little purchase in stuff like heavy equipment or shipbuilding.
Basically it's complicated, and not really a point well suited to that kind of generalism.