Why the US needs a ‘quantum Oppenheimer’ to beat China in the quantum race

The United States is feigning being behind the race via its various press outlets which are connected with intelligence agencies. They are secretly ahead and pretending to be behind.

They don’t want an EXACT Oppenheimer, to which only a few years the secrets of the bomb were leaked. So attracting attention and saying “look how far advanced we are” is not in the US ‘s strategic interest

I agree with you. I posted it because I thought it was interesting to contrast the two approaches, not because I want the USA to win, or indeed that it is a race at all.

That said, it could be seen as a race by some, in that the winner could temporarily get access to most of the world's encrypted communications, in which case I'd hope neither would get even near the finish line.

Yes it’s a race.

USA doesn’t want quantum computer pirate baying our secrets and breaking encryption. There is a strategic need to be first from quantum computing alone, ignoring all other quantum fields, like quantum gravity.