Absolute nonsense to equate the idea of American Exceptionalism with Chinese nationalism. We don't get "admonished" or sent to work camps for being insufficiently or even anti-nationalistic. Our schools regularly even have curricula where American exceptionalism is questioned, unlike the Chinese model where the government is beyond questioning lest you risk a lowered social credit score and a trip to the gulag.

I swear people don't understand how good we have it in the West and how differently people think in China when they are subject to fervent brainwashing from birth. It is extremely difficult to even think to question the government when you have been explicitly and implicitly conditioned from birth to tow the line. Ask a Chinese national coworker about Coronavirus right now and how things are going there and watch them not even flinch when they tell you that everything's fine and under control - just know that if you do so you are putting them on the spot. They are so used to having their digital and in person communications monitored that they wouldn't risk even telling you the truth in person.