Ummm...me thinks you are not an engineer. The science and technology behind ethanol production is public knowledge. There is no need to copy. It's the feedstock that the Chinese have penalised the Americans for. Their ethanol industry is not a major priority in China.

Regarding technology, methinks you need to take your blinders off. There is truth to your assertion twenty years ago. Today, things are different and changing faster than our old perceptions. Our arrogance will do us in.

In the area of nanotechnology, China is really zooming ahead. See: http://www.materialstoday.com/nanomaterials/comment/the-nanotechnology-race-between-china-and-usa/

In molten salt nuclear reactors they are zooming ahead of us. From MIT, "In all, there are 700 nuclear engineers working on the molten-salt reactor at SINAP, Xu said, a number that dwarfs other advanced-reactor research programs around the world. "