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Comment by mnd999 | Hacker News Reader

China seems to be doing okay. So much so that every western government seems to be becoming more authoritarian.

China improved since the 1949 revolution by becoming gradually less authoritarian in matters of economic security. Even so, their GDP per capita is still a fraction of their neighbors (Taiwan, South Korea, Japan)

Singapore also uses authoritarian capitalism and out-GDP-per-capita's all of the above, including the US.

Maybe the size of a country is a bigger factor than all.

> including the US.

Just barely. Also you should be comparing it to a single city in the US.

That's the only developed dictatorship in the world though, nobody knows if it's possible to replicate that outside of a city state

Is that cause and effect defensible? I haven’t heard any Americans civilians or politicians claim overtly or subtly that the US should be more like China.

> Is that cause and effect defensible?

Probably not, it could be for other reasons but it’s certainly happening.

> I haven’t heard any Americans civilians or politicians claim overtly or subtly that the US should be more like China.

It depends what you mean by like China. Nobody’s advocating little red books but there’s plenty advocating for mass surveillance, control of speech, banning books or telling women what the can and can’t do with their bodies.

It's the natural process of politicians, they always want more and more control

China "seems" to be doing okay, and they have succeeded in lifting hundreds of millions out of desperate poverty. But their GDP numbers are all lies because every level of the CCP hierarchy has been exaggerating on official reports for decades. There is no independent verification allowed. External estimates based on resource flows and satellite imagery present a much bleaker picture.

OK for who? Not the 10s of millions murdered.

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