I disagree with the concept that you can accurately measure who is leading the way in science overall based on specific individual technologies that you may be the industry leader in at the moment.
Engineering superiority is not scientific superiority. Your ball bearings example is not suggestive of scientific superiority. China isn’t making massive technological strides in ball bearing studies which are furthering science as a whole.
Frankly, I disagree with the idea that it is possible to, as The Register puts it, beat the world at science because science is a global endeavor and the scientific method requires it to be in order to make sure things are verifiable.