Face saving? More like on your part.
Why did China lagged behind the Europeans in firearms when it was China who invented gunpowder? Now, just in case you think you can apply that analogy to favor China, think again.
The difference here is that China stopped making progress on gunpowder but the the Europeans did not. Whereas with US, we did not stopped progress on ESA radar development. The AWACS platform is one of many that will gain the AESA technology. Our F-15, F-16, F-22, F-35, and B-2 platforms have AESA. The NGAD fighter and B-21 will have AESA as well. So how does this make US behind China in AESA technology?
All you got is the typical 'shiny toy' syndrome and think you are 'ahead'.