Maybe because China is not exclusively focusing on Improving AI?

Also because China is not experiencing a religious movement that rejects science.

I feel as though the low standard of living of the average Chinese national is a more decisive factor. The resources that could be spent on public welfare programs are spent on research and subsidies instead.

I mean, resources aren’t being spent on public welfare programs in the US either. We only have a higher standard of living because of the legacy of (roughly) the New Deal era, when we were investing in it as well as unions winning a lot of labor reforms. Those preexisting advantages have only been slowly eroding for the last 40-odd years.

They absolutely are.

Let’s say I get into a car accident or have cancer. Treatment involves expensive chemotherapy, blood transfusion, and multiple rounds of major surgery.

If I’m in the poorest 10%-30% of the population, the care is provided free of charge. If I’m poor-but not that poor- I have the option to receive the expensive treatment and just not pay. It will just negatively impact my credit score, but I can also get away with “paying what I can afford.”

…this is just one example. Everything from our food to our electronics are subsidized by the government. Most of the resources are more or less taken from poorer nations.