> China seems perfectly able to build out large infrastructure projects with a land area smaller than that of the continentenal USA

China has a land area greater than the USA. (Continental or otherwise.)

sure, we can neglect the water, but the USA has much more usable flat land than China, and that is a pretty inarguable point.

usui 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Not true. China 9.6 million square kilometers, USA 9.8 million square kilometers, contiguous 8.1 million.

	▲	Marsymars 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You're presumably looking at a source that's including water area. When talking about land area, China > USA > Canada. (As opposed to when including water area, Canada > USA > China)