Legend has it that originally the world consisted of two people who cooperated in the challenges they faced to survive. Then came a third, and the two asked him to cooperate. He realized that the two would compete for his help. So it came about that competition replaced cooperation.
Thousands of years later China and the United States emerged as two systems of government, two systems of democracy or expression of the Will of the People. The Chinese built its system on cooperation; the United States built its system on competition.
Another version of the legend is the Biblical one: the original two people were a man and a woman, Adam and Eve. So the issue of competition vs cooperation became even more complicated.