For some useless anecdata, I visited Beijing five times in the last year - compared to my visits in years prior, the air was definitely cleaner. In years past they’ve had entire months where the particulate level never dropped below “very high” - visiting in that month was like suffocating in an airport smoking room.

The authoritarian government has its pros - not having to worry about your regulations, laws and work rolled back every four years is nice. It makes it possible to have long-term plans and execute really aggressive, even economically harmful policies in pursuit of a goal.

Of course, the negatives of such a government - the corruption, the abuses, the drive to maintain power - are all too often the downfalls of such a system, and I’m rather afraid that Xi has started down a bad road by trying to cling to power there.