Was it a moon shot when China or any other country with comparably sized high speed rail systems did it? A quick google shows China's existing high speed rail

Was it a moon shot when China or any other country with comparably sized high speed rail systems did it? A quick google shows China's existing high speed rail system at 23,600 mi, in comparison to the total of 800 miles planned for CA. I don't disagree that it was a moon shot, but it was not a moon shot for reasons of technical difficulty or novelty, but for the reason that it is now so systemically difficult to competently implement any large scale infrastructure in America, and California particularly. I won't comment on what the reasons for that might be. My interpretation is that this kind of decay in capability is that the author is driving at.