China has impressive First World cities, a developed transportation system and an economy that keeps growing by leaps and bounds. To be sure, rural China is still undeveloped but even the benefits of a market economy are arriving there. The country is developing a fast growing middle class. Its still an authoritarian society but people have some freedom and the opportunity to give their children a better life that did not exist under the old Communist system. One day as Napoleon observed, China will shake the world. The Sleeping Dragon may awaken in the not too far off future.
My visit to China reminded me of the Soviet Union. Even in cities like Beijing, there is grinding poverty and third world like conditions. The per capita income in China is $6,600. In Mexico, it is $13,300.