And who actually takes it seriously in the US? Apart from a few military analysts, the vast chunk of the general population still view such achievement as substandard copies.>J-20 number ramps up, 2 seater shows up. No F-22 or F-35 2 seater.
"Not as good as ours, but we should take it seriously"
Notice they can still get closer to reality even though never quite get there. All you need to pull them in the right direction within their landscape of acceptance.
You cannot pull them in the right direction when their coping mechanism is reinforcing their false belief, a mechanism that is imparted at the State level, atleast not very quickly. I don't see this happening for generations. Most Americans aren't shown the details of Chinese developments that can liberate them from their dissonance towards something positive.
The average Westerner still views China as substandard, poor, undeveloped and backwards people living in cells and working in sweatshops. Like that guy somebody posted a video of here, the American who saw the light show in Shenzhen and immediately sunk into cognitive dissonance, associating it with a sinister development. This is a grown adult witnessing the event in person.