What a huge generalisation. This appears to be true in the consumer electronics world perhaps, but look outside of that and it's harder to justify.
For example, China has been building a lot of infrastructure in the past few decades, including the longest and highest bridges in the world[0][1]. There was a story on HN a few days ago about a Chinese company's plans to build what will be the tallest building in only 90 days[2].
Granted there is a lot of press about these bridges falling down, and maybe their rocket will blow up half way to Mars. But you can't say that they aren't pushing things themselves.
[0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges_in_the_... [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_bridges_in_the_world [2]http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4807701