When we were growing up and the Japanese began to make technological advances - cars, motorcycles, radios, electronic equipment etc, our parents told us how rich and deep our Chinese culture and history was. Confucius was the gold standard for morality. Then there was Communism which stopped progress
20years ago, there was Deng's subtle but clear shift to Capitalism
In the last decade, it was always about some superlative - biggest, deepest, longest, fastest, etc. Nothing about invention that changed the world or even a small neighbourhood. Nothing about the best in terms of quality or standard. Within the same time frame look at South Korea - trains, ships, smart phones, cars, media entertainment, fashion, food - clearly there are standards that people recognise.
Notice how Chink inventions stopped after gunpowder and the compass because they've done bugger all since. Nobody ever mentions any other significant invention because there aren't any.
For all the fame the Japanese get for rote learning, they are far more inventive than the Chinese. And you're absolutely right about the South Koreans as well. The Chinese have the toughest national examinations for pre university students, but no university that is even recognized on the world stage. They are a cheap industrial powerful supplying cheap labour to the rest of the world, lowering production costs for everyone, but no inventions of which anyone can note. In essence that's all this big country of 1 billion people is good at. Manipulating their currency, supplying goods and workers on the cheap, and making a quick buck through dishonest means. Can't think of any other way to describe China.