Clinton's speechwriter couned the phrase: "Its the economy stupid"
Economics is a developing art/science where what has gone before influences the here and now and the future.To compare China today with the Soviet Union is a grave mistake, IMO, because China is an outward looking/world trading economy while apart from select arms exports , the Soviet Union was an insular economy. IMO its better to look at China as a mix of State Capitalism and Private Enterprise Capitalisn rather than a Communist System> China post Mao not alone has learned from its own mistakes, it also learned from the Soviet Union's mistakes and in fact Xi's specialty/academic qualifications is just that.
If economics ever purports to be a science then surely it has to be based on verifiable data from the bottom up, not dogma.
IMO there is a vast difference between The Economy & The Political Economy the letter features Government and its fiscal policies. while in Western Economies that merely makes up 25-35% of GDP . Aus is about average for the OECD @ 30% or so.
So to say that western Governments call the shot for the economy is like saying that the tail wags the dog.
China is different because in addition to private enterprise and Government, it has State Capitalism in the mix (we had a touch of that when we owned rthe CBA, Telstra, Qantas etc etc but we were overly influenced by the US 1980's Neo-Liberalism (Raganism) which said that Government should not rumn businesses that private enterprise could/compete with private enterprise. Given the recent banking shennanigans and energy hyperinflation. I guess the jury is still out on that (Neo-Liberalism)
But getting back to: "Its the economy stupid" maxim, IMO , the US' efforts to curtail the economic rise of China is interesting because if China passes out the USA in GDP (Nominal) (it passed it out in GDP (PPP) in 2016 and its still sccalerating away despite the pro-US prophets of doom. These very same 'prophets who are now predicting China's demise as if its an inevitability failed to forecast the US induced GFC!
Its interesting that Singapore is in essence a microcosm of China # economically/politically yet we dont bag it because Singapore has managed to align itself with the US & US Asian interests .
# Singapore is essentially a one party hereditary leadership regime with a tightly managed economy and significant SOEs. etc and it too is going gangbusters economically
