It’s not even remotely at the top. Yeah there’s the glitzy pictures of the skyscrapers (built with poor engineering standards…don’t want to be caught in one during an earthquake or structural fire) and electric cars (also pretty bad) but things in rural China are much the same as they were 200 years ago. No indoor plumbing.

Culturally China has a long way to come. It’s still a pretty backwards place. Wealthy women believe rubbing crushed up human fetuses on their skin keeps them looking youthful. Manta rays have been fished almost to extinction because many Chinese believe their lungs hold healing powers. The Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward were so brutal that only the most cunning Chinese citizens survived. Dishonesty and deception are regularly accepted when dealing with others, especially when dealing with non Chinese. During The Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward many Chinese had to lie, steal and deceive just to survive so those are cultural norms.

Many say that Covid came from a lab, I don’t believe that. I think that a lack of basic sanitation practices coupled with high population density and the eating of non traditional animals (like pangolin) is where Covid came from. China just isn’t technologically capable of producing new viruses. There’s a lack of brainpower.

The economy is propped up by slave labor, artificial currency manipulation and IP theft. The government undertakes many massive infrastructure projects, which end up failing. To bail the government out, cheap labor is needed. It’s a never ending cycle.

Then there’s the government; it’s a communist kleptocracy. The politburo is a group of elites who scheme to subjugate citizens and have the wealth float to the top. Xi loyalists are rewarded. Those who go against the grain are purged.

China has an image problem. The rest of the world isn’t happy with the human rights abuses, pollution and bellicose rhetoric. It’s to the point where allies in Asia are pivoting away from China. Ties between Vietnam and the US are strengthening while ties between Vietnam and China are deteriorating rapidly.

Here’s the good news.

People in China know how messed up the system is. They want freedom of speech, they want democratic reforms. Smartphones are constantly capturing government abuses and people are starting to take notice. The Covid protests are an example of this. People started rioting and the government walked back its Zero Covid policy.

In the coming years people will continue to demand more and more freedoms. At that point China will have to embrace democracy. When that happens China will work closer with the US to solve global problems. That is when you will see it reach new heights instead of the facade you see now. Only then will it reach the top.