I think they subconsciously do see that they don't really have any way to effectively fight China, which inherently means that they are inferiors, not equals. In order to cope with this, they declare that China is equal or slightly less equal (near peer) to them, but this doesn't completely assauge their worldview, so they lean on conspiracy theories that claim China will collapse at any moment or that China is in fact much smaller than it really is.Yeah, exactly completely agree.
The Europeans do not see China as equal either, but the Europeans are not completely blind, they see China doing better in many fields and endeavors.
That in turn elicits fear and hate in some people, especially in the media.
Good.
If they didn't have a subconscious inferiority complex, there wouldn't be a reason to make all these theories that China would collapse or that the economy is only 1/3rd of what it actually is. They wouldn't need to make China look smaller if they themselves were naturally bigger to begin with.
In non anglo Europe, I'd bet that most people have a somewhat "positive" view of China (not politically, but they simply think it's a massive, very modern country with old culture), and these people also don't have any idea how they would even begin to fight China, economically or otherwise.
Europe isn't doing too hot against just Russia right now. Only the most insane genuinely believe they can do anything effective vs China.
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