jpnwdc - fair enough - I think there is a valid debate to be had about innovation in China vs. the USA (and my money is on China, but I can see how there are valid arguments on either side).
But my post was really a reply to npn - and to "I don't think anything of major significance was ever invented in China and I don't know if it ever will" - which is utter nonsense.
Now, China vs. USA on innovation.
First, let me tell you where I am coming from. My first job was in a patent office in the USA. I have worked for technology incubators on the three continents (North America, Europe, Asia - East Asia) and then for various VC firms (in Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and KSA) - one of those was heavily involved in the automotive side. After a brief stint at some hedge funds, I am now semi-retired and working in education. I work at an R1 and do research on the financing of innovation (my PhD is in Finance, I am not a tech person - but I do have an MS in stats from a college of Engineering).
Chinese firms spend more on R&D than US firms (about 4% of revenues, annually, vs 1.5%) - albeit, Chinese R&D expenditure as a proportion of GDP is lower than in the USA (2% vs. 2.5%).
Chinese firms patent a lot more. We see about 1m patents filed per year in China, Vs. 600k in the USA. There was a lot of research, early on, about Chinese patents being lower quality. But China out-patents the USA in Europe - which presumably applies an equal standard. Xuan Tian is probably the biggest worldwide expert - I suggest looking up some of his work - he is Chinese, but it is all published in US peer-reviewed journals. Serious journals. VCs that buy patents pay as much for Chinese ones as for American ones - either they are fools, or this difference in quality is not real.
We could hypothesize that the US has somehow better "talent" - but there are more engineers with a PhD from a US university in China than in the USA (pretty crazy, isn't it?). The truth is, the USA educates the best engineers in the world, then kicks them out with a hostile immigration system. China welcomes them with open arms.
You say old technologies... well, what about batteries? AI? Self-driving cars? Solar panels? How come China is ahead in 5g, while we are rolling out "5g-lite" that is an absolute joke because we don't have the technology? How come our trains are slower? When is the last time the USA landed on the dark side of the moon? Indeed, never.
I give "American ingenuity" as much credit as I give "Italian design." As a kid, growing up in Italy, I saw the stagnation, and then decline, of the country. For twenty (thirty? forty?) years, people in Italy have deluded themselves on the idea that the stagnation was temporary, that, ultimately, nobody could match Italian design, and that would resurrect the Italian economy. How well has that worked out?
I see the exact same delusion playing out right now in the USA. There is a blind faith in "American ingenuity" or the "American entrepreneurial spirit" - all loosely defined concepts that, somehow, are failing to translate into outcomes.
Don't get me wrong - I hope you are right. This is one instances in which I would rather be wrong, frankly. I would rather live in a world in which the USA is still the superpower. But that is wishful thinking. China is building one aircraft carrier per year. You do the math - how long till they catch up?