China and Taiwan are in Asia. Between the two of them there is at least as much if not more tech know-how (soft & hard) in many areas (e.g. face recognition, semiconductors) compared to all others continents combined.

>Only a small amount of innovation is coming out of Asia compared to the US

This is a meaningless claim, and also the fact that you are hardly exposed to the innovation that Asia brings to the table, only US. (Note what website you are writing this on)

China used to be the first world power and economy a few hundred years ago. And they are slowly but surely reclaiming that title.

100 years ago China was barely a country, ripped apart by opium, politics and various countries that occupied China. It took Dr. Sun Yat Sen and subsequently Chiang Kai Shek and then Mao to get China back on its feet and now is a global power because of its 2 billion people.

But you can't compare the innovation of China to the US... for the time being. Admittedly the inflection point is coming soon if the US doesn't get it's head out of its ass.

to play devils advocate, humans have been the most intelligent species for a long time, but haven't always been the dominant one.

further, we shouldn't assume the "most intelligent" rise to the top in terms of hegemony and leadership ex. Trump and our world governments in general.