Not could, is. With the exception of the US, China is already ahead of all other countries. A friend who's one of the top quantum physicists in the world recently returned from a stint in China. He told me that the University lab he was at had more equipment and resources than exist in the entire country of Australia. Within 10-25 years it will become compulsory for western scientists to learn Chinese. They simply value science far more so than we do in the western countries.