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Everything being equal, it is how much money and financial resources that a Nation commit to R%D that will yield great advances in Scientific and technological achievements, ie progress is directly proportional to the amount of money invested in R&D. This has been proven again and again, eg, Britain, Europe, US, the USSR and Japan. Surely there is no magic or some supernatural forces, or Racial-superiority theories here

The USSR was communists, yet they had proved that if they focussed their energy and resources into R%D, they could achieved great results, eg, the SPUTNIK, etc

In the 1980s, everybody thought that the Japanese Century was coming, but it is the US thsat beats the Japanese, in IT, Internet and sciences, why???. Because, besides spending lots of money, the US also practised true MERITOCRACY by attracting and utilizing the best brains and talents the world has to offer, to work in American R&D, whereas the Japanese would hire only Japanese

The USSR was communists, yet they had proved that if they focussed their energy and resources into R%D, they could achieved great results, eg, the SPUTNIK, etc

The Russians had one critical advantage in addition to substantial natural resources. The Russians had some of the finest mathematical and engineering minds of that period and fostered this resource. Even today, if you look at mathematical and scientific literature a disproportionate amount of research is Russian in origin. Despite their poor economy, they were able to leverage their technical culture to overcome this to a certain extent.

The US imported a lot of its brain power during the same period, mostly Jews from Germany, for things like advanced physics.

Again, the culture matters. It takes a complex mix of things to push new boundaries of progress. A strong economy is part of that mix. Another part is a strong technical, mathematic, and scientific culture. Another aspect is the low viscosity of people movement and ideas. China is probably about as far up that hill now as the USSR ever was: weaker on the technical side, stronger on the economy, and about the same in social viscosity. The relative technical weakness and mediocrity of China is its weakest point right now. They always seem to be two steps behind for the most part, certainly compared to much of the industrialized West, though I'm sure that gap will close with time.