It's not just China knowledge, it's a couple of other observations:
- Total lack of subject knowledge in western governments. From my experience you can never underestimate how little people know about something and the vast majority of personal interactions does not involve the need to know anything.
- Western culture trains people to only get their thinking points externally, especially boomers, they literally would kill themselves en-mass (COVID) if the TV told them to do so.
- People equate something's importance only with how many people talk about it and not based on it's objective merit.
Case in point, the fact that Dysprosium is needed in RE magnets, and that RE magnets are neodymium magnets, that neodymium magnets come in many grades and shapes, that they're critical for brushless motors are all knowledge that almost nobody knows outside engineering. When China first announced export control on Dysprosium 6 month ago it was just a single line item half way down the page, while this forum knew immediate it was huge, it's presentation and obsecureness hid the nature of that rule for almost one or two month before magnet shortage popped into news, they literally didn't know they were being starved as China's already starving them.
The fact that large number of Chinese officials has engineering background is far more consequential than most people realize, even if they at a surface level recgonize it's benifits.
