The Chinese are clearly great at distilling current SOTA models. And yes they are crushing on energy infra buildout, especially with American NIMBYs and general Marxist degrowth mindsets.

They still don't have a clear path to create their own SOTA models, especially if American ones become more and more locked down, and they can't distill so easily.

Honestly I think the SpaceX orbital plan is the only hope of maintaining the US lead in the long run.