This is also a type of alcohol that can be made by fermenting sugar (though the fermentation is done by a species of bacterium rather than by yeast), and ithassomeadvantages over ethanol.
China had several competitive advantages over the U.S. First, ithassome of the best concentrations of rare earths in the world, including the huge Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia.
The technology sector has powerful "network effects" that, some say grant outsize advantages to first movers and make it particularly difficult for competitors to break in.