I think you need to review some facts.
But to answer the intended question, while the US is not perfect, it is still better than china as of right now.
So as of now, the US should lead. Not for long though as we all know.
Some of it may be slightly off. You are welcome to correct and cite your sources and I encourage it. Let's debate this...let's project the extrapolate from the data and see if we can project something and debate about it.
I was in China and they are very protective. They like to say we haha about human rights but we have .7% of our population locked up and it's mostly minority. They say we say they have corruption but why is all the politicians always making tons of money after they get out of the political office. These are very valid criticism. Basically, China is saying BACK OFF, you aint no better and I am starting to agree with them. Why do we feel we have the right to tell them how to run their business? This will be a battle of idealogy...we know that a capitalistic economy works best but the government must curve this so that the economy serves everyone....is it democracy or communism? Can more freedom be applied in China and still maintain their country's insane growth in prosperity and wealth? The US may be ahead right now in terms of technology and financials and etc... but who's to say 50-100 years from now? It only took WWII to make us #1 because we had the manufacturing capability when Germany in shambles had the engineering and scientific capability and UK and France controlled finances...
Forgot who said it but it could be someone on PH, if there was a war, China is ready to convert their entire infrastructure to war and we are not...This could be an excellent point in a war of attrition. Do we have sufficient natural resources, labor and factory to win a war? We have superior technology to win a quick war but what about a long war like 4-5 or more?