When it comes to engineering, science rules. Be it constructing a dam, decreasing the nanometers of microchips, designing traffic flows, designing city layouts, biotech engineer new vaccines, calculating the probability of atomic frequencies, creating an algorithm for better artificial intelligence, installing a banking system or calculating the GDP of certain regions.
When it comes to humans, science does not work in many instances. It you try to impose sicentifc rules on humans, sooner of later you will end up with automatons with little or no creativity. Humans react in irrational ways and to create a positive outcome you can only apply science to its maximum capacity when dealing with humans by inputting these inrrationalities. That includes taking into account the desires, the fears, the motivations, the greed, the ignorance, the creativty, the weirdness and the pleasure seeeking nature of humans. In the case of Anglo-Sino relationships, the innate ethnocentrism of the Anglos and how they perceive things. Xi and friends affirmed the Anglos' suspicions by playing into their hands. That's why India as messed up as it is was still able to color the perceptions of these Anglos.
I understand the practical side and the utilitarian nature of Chinese people. Most of my relatives are like that. They would rather walk around with a self cut haircut that looks terrible then spend $50 on a haircut. They would wear 20 year old clothes as long as they are not dirty or worn out. Sure, it makes sense as a free haircut is as good as a $50 haircut and both are the same, a haircut. Clothes are clothes. It covers your body. But it is more than that.
Have a look at all the successful people. Chinese especially. Why they spent premium dollars on high end stuff? Why they pay $200 for a haircut? Why they spent $2,000 on a bottle of wine? When you go quality, you tend to attract more successes. I am not talking about those pretentious ones but those that truly understood excellence and quality.
That is life as stupid as it sounds.
