The burger-clutching on this subject is absolutely wild, the US basically did this to get a leg up on Europe. Pure innovation is a first-mover/market leader strategy. It makes no sense for someone who is substantially behind to innovate things that are easily proven to work and easy to reproduce. A China transitions from 2nd place to market leader (in many markets, already the leader), innovation or rent-seeking will be the only choice for next strategy, and they picked the option the US did not pick. This is merely using the optimal strategy and succeeding.
The burger-clutching on this subject is absolutely wild, the US basically did this to get a leg up on Europe. Pure innovation is a first-mover/market leader strategy. It makes no sense for someone who is substantially behind to innovate things that are easily proven to work and easy to reproduce. A China transitions from 2nd place to market leader (in many markets, already the leader), innovation or rent-seeking will be the only choice for next strategy, and they picked the option the US did not pick. This is merely using the optimal strategy and succeeding.