One area is scientific computing: based on, for example, the Top500 list, or their recent successes with the Gordon Bell prize (basically best paper prize for

One area is scientific computing: based on, for example, the Top500 list, or their recent successes with the Gordon Bell prize (basically best paper prize for the biggest supercomputing conference). Of course there are a lot of political factors in both of those achievements. But money definitely translated into results. (I'm not arguing that China is the best nation in this area either, but they are clearly a leader.)