So I suppose the question you are all asking is, "Where does the United States of America fit into all of this?" That is a very good question.
That might be true a decade earlier but not anymore. China is smart, they are not competing with the west on established technologies like semiconductors, automobiles etc.. they identify a relatively new advanced technology with high barrier of entry and huge world market potential but not well established currently, then they go all in and become the market leader and exporter, in the process creating jobs and own the tech. The list is long and impressive: high speed trains/rails, solar, wind, electric engines parts, now this membrane/saltwater tech, and also in the works is passenger jets to compete with boeing/airbus. No private firm in the west can compete against a country with all the tax benefits and unlimited funding. West will never invest in those high tech private firms like the chinese do, so no way they could compete even fairly. Look at the solar industry how much screaming and crying the western companies have done in the last few years while getting destroyed by the chinese, with little result.