Liǎng gè gōngsī zhǎnkāi le nǐsǐ-wǒhuó de jìngzhēng.
The two companies engaged in a fierce, do-or-die competition.
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Literally: 'you die, I live' - a perfectly stark summary of a zero-sum conflict. The idiom captures situations where the two parties genuinely cannot coexist. Picture two rivals: one must fall for the other to survive.
