China is actually culturally not into education. A Johnny Come Lately to college education. In other words the Chinese culture could have cared less about college education compared to the American culture. If you want or care at all about something as a culture you’d do it. The Chinese only now in a control society are trying to compete. Control society and educated are meaningless to me at least.
Google result
According to the new data, about 220 million Chinese (15 % of the population) had a college or university-level education. This highly educated share of the population increased substantially over the past decade. In 2010, only 9 % of the population had a higher-level degree.
Google result
The percentage of adults in the U. S. between the ages of 25 to 64 with college degrees, certificates, or industry-recognized certifications, has increased from 37.9% in 2009 to 53.7% in 2021, a gain of nearly 16 percentage points.Feb 1, 2023
BTW if you are going to say China needed to become wealthier to afford education that is true. That though does not mean the culture cared. Historically the culture has not cared.
The German results
What percentage of Germans have a college degree?
The percentage of professionals aged 25-34 years with a tertiary education level in Germany was 35.7 percent compared to an EU average of 41.2 percent from 2011 to 2021, a study by the German Economic Institute (IW), a private research institute in Germany, has found.Jan 26, 2023
More on American results
The proportion of adults who had com- pleted one or more years of college was 21 percent in 1970 as compared with 16 percent in 1960. More- over, in 1970, the proportion of the adults who had completed 4 or more years of college was 11 per- cent as compared with only 8 percent in 1960 (table A).Nov 30, 1970
My comment there is also an anti intellectual aspect to American culture dating back to the 1950s.