China treated capitalism as a tool to get from point A to point B, placing it into a walled garden within their society while also maintaining other incongruent social and economic institutions.

The U.S. on the other effectively replaced its entire national identity with capitalism without most people even realizing this is what happened.  

Now we will see which approach proved more successively.

Writer, podcaster, and commentator on foreign affairs and politics. Runs /dropglobalnews

Clanker Broadcasting Service /cbs

Did the US really have a national identity before capitalism? If one is to argue yes, I would argue that at best, the national identity was very aligned with the values that define capitalism