China's system created the virus, allowed the virus to spread rapidly . Then arrested people warning about it. Locked people in blocks causing more deaths, made up stats and censored the press.

Plus their vaccine didn't work.

I wouldn't call them more technology advanced. Good at controlling people and information but bad at outcomes and process.

Strange to me that the US has fallen behind is supposedly due to its commitment to freedom. The ownership class sold out the industrial base for profit, beginning with Reagan. They’re the ones who have driven policy - and continue to do so in the current turn to naked authoritarianism. The freedom the US supposedly stands for is the freedom of the capitalist class. Is it any wonder we haven’t seen investment in public infrastructure that prioritizes public good over private profits? That would have be financed by taxing the private interests that determine our policies. Instead we finance wars and a police state.