The Chinese education system has a ridiculous variance when it comes to quality. In rural areas "education" is often close to non-existent, and even in cities parents constantly push their kids towards private schools (even at the elementary level), since the state ones are often of questionable quality as well.

As for the people with options - the US would do well for itself to retain the ones with options. These are the people your economy needs to most; you can do without a lot of the ones without options.

I wonder how much of that is due to difference rather than genuine inferiority. My understanding is that the learning style in the US and China is very different. Disclaimer: I've never visited China and I've spent a grand total of 3 days in the US. This may limit my ability to comment.

I've /heard/, only, mind, that Chinese reading/writing is so hard that kids spend up to 5th, 6th grade on it. Sure, schools in countries with Western languages do too but, my impression from where this info came was that it ate up a few more years of schooling all by itself.

I really doubt that learning a hard language would be detrimental to their education.

In many countries kids study 2 or more foreign languages and they are much better off because of it. The more you learn, the easier it is for you to learn more.

Plus, I've been studying Chinese writing and I don't think it's as hard as it looks to an outsider.

Educated Chinese Americans send their kids to private and very good (i.e. high property tax areas) public schools.

Something nobody ever mentions is that there is a huge rich/poor divide in public education quality, it's not universally terrible. The best public schools are just as good as private schools, and this is represented at elite universities.