The fact that freedom in the US is conflated with not getting the vaccine is incomprehensible. Something like vaccination should be mandatory with very limited exceptions for truly legitimate cases.

The rise of China is democratizing access to technology. My home government, supposedly a longtime partner of the US even doing its dirty work in Yemen, has struggled for years to get any tech transfer deal with the US, too many hoops to jump through. But were able to get many tech transfers from China recently. It was a major win and that technology includes solar panel manufacturing.