US freight rail moves roughly 40% of the cargo in the country, China's moves about 15% (and is in long stagnation/decline in terms of how much it moves). Roughly 80% of what moves within China does so by an endless sea of trucks.

That's a pretty huge difference in terms of modal share.

And even with the sprawling size of the US network (and differences in things like labor costs), US freight rail is still more efficient at moving cargo in terms of costs.