In reality, Pharma- US leads because medicine is a priority sector. This sector attracts the best talent and get huge infusion of funds. It is substantially more than in China or Europe. Your logic about health in the two countries is not credible.
Why is it a priority sector? Because mega corporations in that sector lobby and control governments and create favorable conditions for their businesses to thrive in that country, hence having more money and attracting more talent. I thought this was basic common knowledge, just look at painkiller or anti-depressant relative usage in China vs the US, look at drug costs (more profit for corporation, allowing for bigger growth), etc.
It is very common for Chinese drugs to cost up to 30-50 times less than in the US, just follow the news, the most recent ones were one diabetic drug and one cancer drug. If you get injured somehow in China, doctors prescribe you much fewer painkillers, etc, no bullshit SSRI, government is in power and not greedy mega-corporations. See how they are allowed to market heavily to doctors, and legally bribe them, etc. None of this is legal in China. You are mistaking the cause and consequence. Their bigger talent pool is a result of all of those factors I mentioned on a fundamental level, it didn't come from nothing.
And that's not logic about health in two countries, it's facts. China spends 2 times less on healthcare (but for the complete population than the US spends on only a fraction of the population) and still gets better results (in terms of life expectancy and health span measured by various metrics like metabolic syndrome and other chronic diseases). Just go look at life expectancies. It's common knowledge that the Chinese healthcare system and culture historically focus heavily on prevention and something is way easier and less expensive to treat the earlier it is found.
More on healthcare, the primary difference is that the healthcare system in the US is fully private, and private actors care mostly about their own profits, they care less about the healthiness of their citizens, that's human nature. That's why socialized healthcare systems like in China work much better in almost all cases. In the US, pharmaceutical giants are pushing ultra-expensive drugs, and private clinics are charging millions of dollars, so not many people can afford it all, and they don't care all that much about prevention. (Also can put way more harmful chemicals into the food, because once again, corporations control the government in the US, and the opposite is in China).
That's why China is winning in healthcare. Real affordable and prevention-focused healthcare system and government slapping around its pharmaceutical companies to lower prices and to not even think about getting their citizens drugged on unnecessary medications. That's why Chinese pharmaceutical giants don't have that much money for R&D like in the US. Because there is no need for such over-production of drugs.
Transportation- As you surmised USA leads because of its aircraft industry. This is one the hardest sectors to break into both technically and financially. Even China’s indigenous jet C919 has lots of foreign parts.
They lead in aircraft manufacturing because that's the strategic transportation sector to them historically. After all, they are a much less densely populated country and that is the most optimal primary national way of transportation for them in between large cities.
Meanwhile, for China, the primary national transportation is high-speed rail due to the population density of the area in which the majority of them live. You can go among major Chinese cities with high-speed rail in just 4 hours, and due to the economics of scale, at super cheap costs.
And now compare Chinese achievements in the aircraft manufacturing industry (not their primary), and the US achievements in high-speed rail (not their primary), and it's a staggering achievement. Imagine the US beating China in high-speed rail in 10 years, and that's what China will do to them in aircraft manufacturing.
Lastly, regarding IT, just look at the industries in which US startups originate, vs in China, and you will see that most of that US IT "might" go into services, whereas Chinese IT goes into much more valuable sectors. (Not that crazy if you understand their different GDP structures).
