and lots of patience, political and cultural changes

look at japan, when at its top moment, was more than 50% GDP of america and higher on per capita, but its science level was far below in relative terms.

it's not easy, i'll use the analogy of 100 meters running, now matter how japan gets stronger, it still lags behind a lot on that catagory.

and china at now simply can't afford those luxuries. too much resources and too little imminent rewards.

instead a more practical roadmap is forcing foreign investers to transfer tech. a good example is high speed rail. china learned the knowhow, improved it and now used it to compete with the world leaders.

if you check news, a hot topic is so-called indigeneous innovaiton policy, greatly resented by west businessmen. well if china can't get the very latest tech, how about the tech just before the latest?
say, give us f-15/16 tech when your americans are going to use f-35 fighters (just an analogy, of course military tech is off-limits)