My brother who, prior to retirement traveled to China quite bit.  I'm hoping they did not get him in position where he could be blackmailed.  He dated for a good while a daughter of the richest Chinese industrialist, and he seems kind of jaded about China's abuses. He told me that before you can become an important political figure, you have to work your way up.  For example, in our terms, if you wanted to be a governor, you first would have to be a successful city councilman, and them a successful mayor, and so on, and so forth. You would have to prove yourself at each successive level, prior to moving up.  And I guess in China, success was measured in terms of how you contributed to the CCP objectives.  As you say, when all the lines are pulling in one direction, that is a force hard to beat. This is my understanding.  I am no expert on this, but I think the advantage we have is that under a system of true capitalism, which we have not had for a good long time, people are much more, not only creative, innovative, but driven to innovate, than people that are creating something for a greater good where the benefit/reward goes to the state, instead of the individual.    Also, if you know anything about the history of creative/innovative progress, the Anglo European people have shown to have a more creative, innovative intellect that Asian people  1383  .  Chinese are great at taking a good idea, and turning it into a better idea, but history has proven that almost all innovative ideas has come from the Anglo-Saxon race.  Most products of China were not conceived of by the Chinese.  They stole the ideas from the west.  Sure they came up with Gun Power, but what did they do with it but make fireworks.