and China’s homeownership is higher and homelessness rates are lower than in the USA,

Dive a bit deeper into what qualifies as a “home” in China. There are certainly fine homes and I’ll even say the majority of homes would fall into this. However, 1/3 of China is rural. A portion of that have open fires and no running water, yet is still meeting the definition of a “home”. I will say I do like China’s housing subsidy to the poor, however.

as are their per-capita carbon emissions

That’s one measure, and a valid one. However, if we’re chasing solving carbon we need two things. Identify and solve the largest producers of CO2.

1 China 32.88%

2 United States of America 12.6%

3 India 6.99%

4 Russia 4.96%

Here’s the USA’s CO2, on the way down:

source

Here’s China’s CO2, on the way up:

source