A lot of answers here are excellent already. I’m just here to summarize:
– It’s true that Chinese characters can be more cumbersome to write, than English.
– But the Chinese language can be written in a staggeringly concise manner, hence makes up for the disadvantage.
For example, compare the length of the two sentences:
EN vs CN:
English words have fewer strokes per word, but Chinese characters pack more information per character, making them shorter.
英语单词每词笔画少，但中文汉字每字包含信息量大，因此更短。
Get it? Chinese sentences are often shorter, and more dense. It compensates for the complexity of writing individual characters.
So, I’d say, Chinese and English in handwriting are more or less equally effective.
It sounds reasonable, no?
The sad truth is that, if you type on a modernized digital device, with some (a lot of) help from the input method:
Chinese language efficiency would have butchered English language efficiency, by a large margin.
Imagine trying to write those characters using a pen on paper. Good luck.