Oh come on. China is not totalitarian and has not been for decades. It is authoritarian at most, and considering the effective one-party nature of most long-lasting "democratic" states these days, I'm not even sure that word means anything anymore. It is impossible for non-establishment actors to organise politically in most big countries and the only difference is the fertility of the grounds for political unrest, and the mechanism by which opposition is put down.

Mostly-competent entrenched ruling class (with token democracy) vs. mostly-competent entrenched ruling class (without the token democracy). That's what we're looking at here, and quite honestly, I am not sure that the periodic input of a disinterested and politically naive bunch of voters is all it's cracked up to be.