China has a market economy. Government owns key sectors of strategic/national importance.
Government has done a good job of lifting millions of people out of poverty and creating an imperfect rule of law state.
A transition to democracy is still decades in the future. People expecting dramatic change in China are bound to be disappointed.
But there is hope for a better life, something impossible in Mao’s China. Totalitarian China in the 70s was a poor, blank and grey country. No freedom.
When Deng came to power he sought to change it. The country became authoritarian and people could own private property, start a business and make lots of money and eat and live better and even travel.
Freedom isn’t comparable to what it is in South Korea and Japan but Chinese are a lot freer than they were under Mao. And that has a lot to do with their outlook for the future.
Its also why China isn’t going to disappear like the Soviet Union did. China is a real country with a rich culture and a history going back thousands of years.
Despite current economic troubles, its still destined to become an economic superpower.
I don’t disagree with anything you say.
Its just that China has the heavy hand of statism, massive government and cronyism upon it. Off course its better than in the 1970s.
The low-lying fruit of development has been picked, IMHO. They face a low growth future.
In fact, as we become more centrally controlled in the USA, we and China are moving from opposite extremes towards each other.