China is second in mass to orbit after SpaceX. All others amount to a rounding error. There are currently a couple dozen Chinese startups working to build reusable orbital class rockets. Launches or test fires every week. No other country has an active program to build a reusable launch stage. It's not a hot war... yet. One might call it a cold war.

Isn't that the issue? We are not on the clock anymore, until China actually blows past us, we can just keep delaying everything.

It's not just a one time thing. These delays are recurring.