America, which is called “Meiguo” or “beautiful country” in Chinese, was the bastion of wealth and ease.

It's only called that (美国) through abbreviation, the full name is [美]利坚合众[国] meilijian hezhongguo (Federation of American States) where meilijian is 译音/transliteration/phonetic. The 美 on its own yes means beautiful but it's used here for sound not meaning.

Same for people who think England (英国 yingguo) is the 'heroic' country when it's also just another abbreviation, this time of 英格兰 yinggelan or [英]联王[国].