I am confident that most scientists would never want to work on any of the projects you've mentioned nor could China lure people in to work on such things.
Instead, just the fact that one day China might be the first destination for young talent instead of the US will be enough to give them the edge in their fight for superiority. Whatever the case humanity will see at least some benefit from these type of competitions.
Can someone explain to me what a good use-case for Rust would be? I mean, why would I pick it over C#/Go/Python for web development? Does it only outperform them, or is it also a pleasant language to use?
Last week I got scammed by some guy that came to my door asking for money so he can have a hand surgery, he showed me his hand which was severly disformed and I got sentimental and gave him some spara change (a few bucks), which considering I'm a student still hurts my tight budget a bit. Anyhow I felt good giving him the money, because I thought it might help him if even just a bit. Turns out he got arrested for being a scammer the next day, I recognized his face in the local news article. The takeaway lesson from that was that if I were ever in a position to help people out, I'd do so only through legal chanells and organizations that have proved themselves to actually give something meanigful for the people in need.
If given the choice people will usually pick the field they find interesting. If however you live in an impoverished country where getting a job in a STEM field could be the ticket out, you are way more likely to consider picking those fields. My (original) country is rather poor for example, but the education is free and a lot of people in college that were studying with me picked EE & CS just because it could give them a good paying job, they didn't care about the field nor did they in most cases enjoy it all that much, those who didn't change their mindset usually didn't graduate or it took them more because they were forcing themselves, anyhow in those living conditions the male to female ratio in STEM fields was always close to 1 : 1. But that might not be the case were OP lives, because in a rich country people get to choose with far less pressure and in the end it still holds true that most girls just don't find those fields to be interesting.
I see this as good news, no country should rein supreme as that would most certainly allow it to misuse it's power, instead having two competitors guarantees, to some degree at least, that neither will abuse it's position.
Yeah that is a real concern, that is many people who don't even posses a deeper understanding of those topics will take on the job market, so having a "rare" skill can differentiate one in the job market.
Instead, just the fact that one day China might be the first destination for young talent instead of the US will be enough to give them the edge in their fight for superiority. Whatever the case humanity will see at least some benefit from these type of competitions.