Instability in the present doesn’t mean instability in the past where preparation could have been done. But setting that aside:

I really think that the way that the USA is being outcompeted (according to these seemingly hypocritical sources) could be competitive spontaneously given the size and resources of china.
It’s always things like EVs that these news sources focus on, and China did invest heavily into battery tech during a time of relatively stability in the past, which is paying dividends now, also they’re just able to manufacture nice cars for cheaper, plain and simple.
They outcompete for electronics manufacturing due to the lower cost of labour, the scale of manufacturing they can provide, and proximity of materials, and the existing tooling.
Etc.

And even if none of that was true, have you never seen a store that is almost bankrupt, putting on crazy sales to attract new customers? Undercutting competitor could be what causes the instability.

All this is hypothetical, I’m not arguing that’s actually what’s happening in China, I’m just describing how these things need not be mutually exclusive.

I get your point, Western propaganda can’t make up its mind about if they’re strong or weak.
But it’s not really a funny joke because economic instability isn’t mutually exclusive with outcompeting, so the Schrodinger doesn’t really apply.

Alien

Square alien

Cube alien

Which infinity?

As the saying goes

An infinite number of multicellular organisms with an infinite number of writing utensils will eventually reproduce a recognizable literary work