General Electrics’s GE9X, the engine powering the Boeing 777X, under construction. In my recent article contrasting Chinese dynamism with American sloth , I described how the Chinese state-capitalist system has an unusual tolerance for social disruption, which, when paired with prescient leadership, enables massive societal uplift. Many of the comments, however, extrapolated this observation about state capacity into prophecies of inevitable American decline that I did not intend to imply. Perhaps the slight polemical detour gave some of the audience license to veer towards doomerism. So let’s be clear: this is an incorrect assumption. A united Western alliance possesses many structural advantages the Chinese state will struggle to replicate. Instead, I think China-hysteria is largely just a belated overcorrection. After two decades disparaging the idea that any other power could pose a challenge to Western hegemony, we’re now astounded by the very existence of competition.…