China is as competitive as you want it to be. immigrants disproportionately come from the educated class, and among that class, yes, its competitive because of gaokao. But educated people aren't all there are in China. tons of streamers, artists, blue collar workers, etc. who never went to college or fucked around in 3rd tier college, up to and including the CEO of Luxshare who doesn't have a degree (except an executive MBA gotten after she was CEO).
Semiconductor equipment install engineer: 7-12k RMB per month, associates degree, Nanjing and Chengdu
Semiconductor fab production technician: 5-7k RMB per month, trade school (below high school), Wuhan
That's wage > GDP per capita outside tier 1 cities. It's like an associates degree making 60k+ USD in the US in Dallas or Cleveland - very very rare especially as an Asian.
In the US, Asians have to be as educated as possible. You can't just work a blue collar job.