I think it wasn't. The EU + US is reasonably close to what China appears to be planning as its long-run population, so if the US and the EU had a real partners

I think it wasn't. The EU + US is reasonably close to what China appears to be planning as its long-run population, so if the US and the EU had a real partnership and co-operated effectively they could probably have kept up with China. Now of course, that isn't what's happened and I think even under Biden there were strong efforts to limit competition from the EU and to disadvantage its industry, so it was always going to go this way, but with a real effort I think something different could have been achieved.