At primary and high school levels, I agree numerical standard is higher in East Asia. (Not sure about Europe, India, other parts of Asia…) Doesn’t mean at this level American students are weaker overall. Look at communication skills, innovation, creativity. Beyond academics, they might have other strengths over the Singapore students.

At the uni level, very different contrasts. Most top universities are in the US. More innovation. More research output. More ground-breakers.

Professionally, the Americans (often of Asian and East European ancestry) I have met are not weaker than the Chinese at all ! So the Chinese competitive advantage built up in secondary school is completely lost.

Just one example- very few Chinese open source contributors!

In some competitive subjects, practice is key, so the American students also commit to practice, but often out of motivation rather than pressure and “national pride”. Examples — music, arts, dance, athletics, basketball.