It's hard to ever forget that one st*dy where it showed the average American had a 5th grade reading level. It was to say that many Americans could read , but not take information away from a source.

Also if Google is to be trusted then China has a higher literacy rate than the US.

Also "made transitions to democracy" is a really euphemistic way to talk about all the war, bloodshed, and atrocities that happened (e.g. the atom bombs in Japan).