[jak92]

> People of China deserve better (once they’re a solid middle class and taken out of poverty).

You are implying that the current policies will bring them out of poverty which in a sense contradicts your first statement.

[samspenc]

Countries have emerged out of poverty even with strong democracies. I'm not sure why the world thinks that a strongman regime like the CCP is needed for economic growth.

In that sense, China is (IMHO) actually an outlier, an exception where a Communist regime used fully capitalistic economic policies and foreign investment to bring people out of poverty. This could have happened even if there was a different form of government there.