That may be their intent but in reality, biding thier time is the worst strategy against China because backing off only gives China more energy to invest in growth rather than conflict and really everything stems from China outgrowing the West. Today, their problem may be economic dependence on and technological competition with China. But many tomorrows later, after they bide their time to remove economic dependence, their new problems will be total eclipse by Chinese technological dominance, severely eroded Western global influence and perhaps the rise of certain global south countries buoyed by cooperation with China to challenge the Western powers that once colonized and oppressed them.

He wants to compete with China in the domain of underground? Okay…
The next battlefield domain of the future will be… underground? Don’t you love how these new military tech bros write themselves as the next James Bond or comic book villains?
So what is he thinking? A new way to invade countries via underground? Yeah attacking the enemy by the way of burrowing underground is way faster than ICBMs. Maybe he thinks he can be sneaky and dig the US to underneath an enemy country before they strike. Or does he think the US will be able to take everyone’s underground riches without them knowing it?
Btw, this is a sector that China only entered in as recently as 2008. Competitors had a century plus head start before China entered.Currently, 7 out of every 10 tunnel boring machines used worldwide come from China
Cheese, pate, wine, Cognac, and maybe perfume. Apart from that, the other over-priced and branded stuff has more sensible Chinese alternatives.What does the French have on offer anyways?