They finally admit what all alert observers already know: that they are persecuting China because it 1) does things differently from them and 2) it is beating them in peaceful competition.
By doing so, they are declaring to the world that no one will be allowed to do things differently from the US and succeed. If they do, they will be persecuted, punished and destroyed:
"Market-based US and European economies are struggling to survive against China’s ‘very effective’ alternative economic model, a top US trade representative has warned.
"Katherine Tai told a briefing in Brussels on Thursday that Beijing’s ‘non-market’ policies will cause severe economic and political damage, unless they are tackled through appropriate ‘countermeasures’…
“The US trade chief called for ‘defensive’ policies such as tariffs, as well as measures that are ‘more on the offense,’ including ‘incentive measures to correct for a market dynamic that is not playing out in our favor’.”
The point of becoming the global hegemon is much like that of establishing a monopoly, it is never having to compete again. That is after all the ultimate goal of every capitalist. It is only logical that once a capitalist achieves a monopoly they will use all means at their disposal offered to them by their position of dominance to prevent any new competition that could pose a threat to their position from arising. This isn’t pathetic and any rational actor in their position would do the same.
The point as we Marxists always say is not that the individuals in positions of power in capitalism are morally deficient (i mean they are, but that’s not the point…and whether that’s because being in their position made them that way or because you only get to that position by being morally deficient is a bit of a chicken-and-egg question), it’s that the entire system is built in such a way as to incentivize and produce these sorts of behaviors.
As such the solution isn’t to simply switch out the leaders for less “pathetic” ones, it’s to topple the entire system of capitalist imperialism altogether.
I fully agree, I just like to phrase it like that because I feel that type of mindset would click for a lot of Americans (non-commies), because Americans are all about “we’re gonna get on the gridiron and we’re gonna win! we’re gonna get the touchdown, we’re gonna be the Super Bowl champs”, but ironically no one else plays in the Super Bowl but America, so we’re always the Super Bowl champs. It’s just a perfect analogy.