"The PRC's rise is a failure of American presidential leadership." Whatever logic the article employs, that it was published on the American Greatness website, with such a headline, shows that the journal doubts its name. It was suggesting that the rise of the People's Republic of China was a direct challenge to the greatness of the world's only superpower, the United States.

That is the kind of mentality that is typical of an empire in its last days. In contrast, when an empire is on the rise, it will hold a relatively open mind aimed at making a bigger cake for all and inviting other nations for that cause. However, when the decline sets in, it will be extremely sensitive to the rise of any new power, fearing that the latter might pose a challenge to it, even if the latter means no challenge at all.

China has so many times made it clear that it pursues a "win-win" strategy for all, yet one team after another at the White House has been taking harsh measures against its high-tech industries in order to hinder its growth. The right word for such a mentality is "Sinophobia".

As is apparent from the aforementioned article, written by a political scientist, the mentality has spread from politicians to scholars. While politicians are busy working to contain China, political scientists are busy inventing new theories to justify their actions.

It means that in its last days, the empire is hastening the spread of this mentality in US society. The mentality is spreading so badly through the healthy body of a patient called "US" that it is forcing it into a mad scramble to waste its resources in fighting imaginary enemies.

That's exactly how empires end and the day won't be very far away if the US continues in this mode.