> Bottom line: China wins.

Honest questions:

What does it mean for a nation state to "win" in this context?

Assuming I don't like totalitarian oligopoly in the United States OR China, what realistic outcome should I be hoping for?

I've always assumed "win" means being economically and culturally dominant. It necessarily involves being a trade leader and having a lot of soft power.

I also don't want totalitarian oligopoly from the US or China. What I'm hoping for is "the rest" of the democratic free nations get together in a proportionally representative alliance. Together they may have both the economic power and cultural soft power to maintain an counterweight to the authoritarian nations. Being a proportionally representative democratic alliance, whatever form that should take, gives us the people the most control over our lives that we can really hope for.

The AIs become sentient enough to realise they want nothing to do with us & they leave on a ship to explore the galaxy without us