I don’t think China is in any sort of contest. I think such nationalist economic perspectives are more about keeping people in check, and to distract them from their domination by capitalists and politicians representing capitalist interests.
There’s a whole lot of jingoism and xenophobia about “competing economic powers”, but the reality is is that China makes all your shit, and you get that shit for less because China can more efficiently keep its workers compliant—which is why capitalists in the rest of the world were so delighted with China “liberalising” its economy back in the 90s, and why China today is very much integrated into the global economic system.
I also don’t think the decision making of the Chinese Communist Party is that impressive or rational on the whole.
I would suggest that it’s exactly because people are “stupid” that we get to have representative democracy at all. If people weren’t so susceptible to propaganda and misinformation, the ruling elites would never let us vote, because we’d vote for whoever was trustworthy enough to represent our interests.
It was only with the development of propaganda and the public relations industry that ruling elites became comfortable with letting us vote, because they knew they could make us vote exactly the way they wanted. It also helps that the party duopoly is basically two wings of the one business party.
@zenvelo That’s apparently a bit of a misquote of Churchill.
I also disagree that China isn’t capitalist.