China's communist rulers embraced capitalism but not free, open and honest markets. They did so because it was what they had to do to hold on to power and the perquisites it brought. This "deal with the devil" means that the Chinese economy is shot through with authoritarian controls. Controls that the apparatchiks who administer them never intended to enforce. Rather they were intended as "bribe bait" to keep the gravy flowing. I fear if they actually have to run the system they created without the lubrication of corruption, the machine will seize up.
This is the problem with statist systems be they China, France or New York city: ultimately political power decides everything and because corrupt political power is the most powerful of all, everything politics touches ends up dirty and rigged. In whitebread northern european places like Sweden or Minnesota things take a little longer to go off the rails but unchecked, statism eventually leads to China. Or Italy, or Greece, or India or any number of poverty stricken satrapys.
But the lust to find one's significance in the manipulation of others is so incredibly strong in our species. As the Bible says: "pride goeth before a fall".
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