It's becoming hard to ignore the contradictions in the western system and the fact that China is visibly pulling ahead technologically. I expect now that China has caught up with the west, we're going to start seeing Chinese tech rapidly eclipse western capabilities.

China a population that can match all of the west combined, and people are provided with an excellent education system. On top of that, the government directs the trajectory of technological development ensuring that it's largely productive as opposed to simply being done for the sake of generating profit. The use of AI in China being largely seen in industry and healthcare compared to AI being mostly used for chatbots in the west is a great example of the contrast in priorities.

The other aspect to keep in mind is that technology tends to be self reinforcing. For example, having more computing power means you can process more data, run more detailed simulations, and so on. This directly facilitates developing even more powerful computers. Such gains apply across the board making it cheaper and faster to develop all kinds of technology. The only limiting factor is the will of the nation to pursue advancement.