No they don't, that is completely a red herring.
> I'm envious of all the new things they're building with all their 'fake' growth.
We could have HSR also if we were willing to pay for it...if we thought it made sense to our economic growth. And the Chinese have taken out a lot of debt to pay for it, it wasn't free, and the only profitable line ATM is the one between Beijing and Shanghai. HSR might work out in the future, HSR might lead to economic growth, but these are bets like anything else.
I've taken HSR between Beijing and almost Guangzhou (my wife's hometown doesn't have an airport but has an HSR station). It was fairly empty much of the way during the 6 hour or so trip.
I mean, better is better. Let's not pretend that USA can still build the infrastructure as it needs, better than China.
On the other hand, China's infrastructure project are funded by cheap labors. That's maybe more relevant than financial models. Also they have little resistance from the locals affected by the projects. Here we cannot even build apartments higher than certain number...
They were paid for by investors and bank loans. The governments direct contribution is not that large. If HSR isn't going to pay off, those investors are losing their shirts.
> Let's not pretend that USA can still build the infrastructure as it needs, better than China.
The USA takes advantage of cheaper goods from other countries. It can totally survive without that, but we like more stuff.
China Railway is a SOE, so it is technically the government. It took out a lot of debt to do HSR, and technically that isn't considered public debt and is rather listed as corporate debt (if SOE debt was considered public debt, China's public debt would obviously be much higher than the USA). Anyways, see https://www.ft.com/content/ca28f58a-955d-11e8-b747-fb1e803ee... for a better read.
Highways in China are mostly financed in similar ways actually, which is why all of the newer ones have pretty high tolls.