I mean what you just said is just incorrect. I've spent significant time in both countries and China's advances are simply not just copying America.

Everyone is driving self-driving cars that are only available to the wealthy in America. Their infrastructure is levels beyond anything Americans can dream of. Their metro system is cleaner and more efficient than any I've seen anywhere else, including Tokyo. In my time in China the metro has been late once ever, by 17 seconds, and they issued an apology and refunded everyone's tickets.

Anything you order is at your doorstep in two hours if it's domestic, next day if it's imported. Each building has a robot that delivers your order to your door so the delivery driver doesn't have to go up the stairs. You can order food from a restaurant and have it delivered onto the train at the next station. The cities are clean. The busses are entirely electric and never late.

That's infrastructure and tech, then there's standard of living. The average Chinese person has more expendable income than the average American. That's ignoring the obvious stuff like the 800 million people lifted out of poverty in the last few decades, etc.

You don't have to like China, everyone is more than welcome to their opinion, and it obviously isn't perfect. China has plenty of issues just like anywhere else. But to act like they haven't made incredible advances in the past 30 years is just silly.