China indeed has made stride of progess but ...

There is still a long way to go for China, esp. competing against USA.

I always think this way that if USA switches its current "democracy" mode to "dictator" mode (such as in war time), the potential of US can be more than astonding.

For example, yes, China can build a high-speed railway of a few thousand miles within a few years, while US can hardly do the same in a decade due to various "democracy" factors, i.e. various stakeholders' interests conflicts etc, etc. But just imagine if this is war time, all these "democracy" factors are gone, then US and China are competing at the same level, and with the technology and sacrifice of US people (yes, do not under-estimate a nation's will/determination to sacrifice), US will beat China in any time, any way.

All my classmates (in graduate school) who studied best and were considered smartest are all in US / Europe, yes, most of them are just engineers or professors, but I have all the confidencee that they (myself included) can beat my other classmates (staying in China) any time in terms of R&D or innovation capability / capacity. With this said, I'd say China still has a long way to go, but I am really proud of her achievements every step along the way.