IMO many posters on this thread simply dont get it.
There are now 2 different systems competing for global leadership/influence:
The USA which has been the Global leader since WW2 with its global reach in capital markets, finance, military and ideology led by private enterprise with an accommodating political system and moderated by Mild Welfare State policies to avoid revolution.
Now along comes China with a hybrid system; something completely different....Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. This Hybrid has evolved out of Mao Communism (Soviet Clone) with its mix of State & Private Capitalism and relaxation of state owned property rights.
Given that economics is an art rather than a science, its always hard to have set yardsticks/ principles like a normal science because economics is based on human behaviour which changes continuously as circumstances change.
At present we dont have pure Capitalism or pure Communism but instead systems with varying mixes of both on a spectrum with Communism on one end of the spectrum and Capitalism on the other. Our challenge is to find the centre point.
This is why it is difficult to qualify where either the USA or China is on that spectrum. If we choose the political system then arguably China being closte to a dictatorship (Authoritarian) is further right of the USA (Less Authoritarian) while China's economic policies are arguably left of those of the USA.
Our representative democracy with a strong Welfare State twist is a complex bit of hybrid despite what some posters assuming that we have a Democracy with Free Markets.
