From your comments: - no debate on population and the ability to grow STEM graduates at a faster clip - no debate on the general availability of education -

From your comments: - no debate on population and the ability to grow STEM graduates at a faster clip - no debate on the general availability of education - many folks debate whether there is enough innovation or space to execute on research that isn't in line with whatever the political stance is at the moment. This is a long debate and anyone with a proper understanding of US history can find many instances where the US government has also shut down innovation. That being said, foundational efforts that we all rely on daily have come from DARPA, NSA, CIA and other government funding sources and made it into global consumer goods This is from the physicsworld.com article you posted: "They found that 1.67% of papers with Chinese authors were in the top 1% most-cited articles in 2019 compared with 1.62% of papers with US authors." This is not what one would call "outpacing". To your other points re: Yandex and VK. I assume you know the below, but lets discuss: Russia has fully blocked its competitors and built in-country players as has China. Not quite the same as growing invasively the way FB, Insta, Whatsapp, Paypal etc have from an external position. The government has advantaged their own players, which is fine but not the same. This I can say from reading and from first-hand experience having worked on growing Paypal in Russia and other emerging markets.