Americans are terrified of China because Chinks beat them at their own game. The problem with the US is - it has no culture and thus has nothing unique to offer to the world. Almost everything they produce isn't in any way tied to the American identity and therefore can be easily copied by virtually any entity with enough resources. Therefore instead of culture, Americans rely on the country's massive GDP and military superiority to combat their insecurities and uphold the myth of their exceptionalism. The second thing they rely on is their version of "democracy" that they religiously worship and believe to be the best system humankind can come up with. Right now China is practically destroying them at both fronts. When it comes to the political system, they demonstrate competent authoritarianism is superior to absolute individual freedom, since the former reinforces the society, while the latter eliminates the taboos the nation is based on and eventually brings about its collapse. When it comes to wealth, Chinks again are slowly surpassing the US, practically removing their only claim to exceptionalism. An average American doesn't fully understand this, but subconsciously he feels that wealth and the idea of unrestricted individual freedoms were the only two things that made the US stand out among other states as a "shining city on a hill". With both of those gone, so is American exceptionalism, a conclusion they cannot fathom.

Americans are terrified of China because Chinks beat them at their own game. The problem with the US is - it has no culture and thus has nothing unique to offer to the world. Almost everything they produce isn't in any way tied to the American identity and therefore can be easily copied by virtually any entity with enough resources. Therefore instead of culture, Americans rely on the country's massive GDP and military superiority to combat their insecurities and uphold the myth of their exceptionalism. The second thing they rely on is their version of "democracy" that they religiously worship and believe to be the best system humankind can come up with. Right now China is practically destroying them at both fronts. When it comes to the political system, they demonstrate competent authoritarianism is superior to absolute individual freedom, since the former reinforces the society, while the latter eliminates the taboos the nation is based on and eventually brings about its collapse. When it comes to wealth, Chinks again are slowly surpassing the US, practically removing their only claim to exceptionalism. An average American doesn't fully understand this, but subconsciously he feels that wealth and the idea of unrestricted individual freedoms were the only two things that made the US stand out among other states as a "shining city on a hill". With both of those gone, so is American exceptionalism, a conclusion they cannot fathom.