The narrative characterized by Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2020 statement that the "East is rising and the West is falling" emerged around the time of the 2008 financial crisis and gained traction early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when China brought its domestic outbreak under control after the virus spread beyond its borders while the U.S. grappled with soaring infections and deaths.
This early success, along with China's closing the gap with the United States in artificial intelligence and other technologies, as well as militarily, has been presented as evidence that the country is ascendant.