These are valid questions only because we, both you and I, are western educated. There are some important points that changes our perspective:

1) Communism, socialism, capitalism, are Western terms for western systems of political governance. Westerners have yet to fully understand and translate the form of commercial and bureaucratic systems that have survived China’s 4000+ year history.

2) We, as free thinking, utilitarian libertarians, assume that societies and individuals across the Pacific are just like us. They have the same wants, needs, motivations in life, etc. However, this is untrue. There are many societal differences, but the most obvious is that Asians are generally collective and Westerners are generally individualistic. This is not something communism imposed on the population. Rather, it is the population that imposed on communism in China. They do not have the same aspirations and individual needs as we do. They do not fit inside our classifications of circumstantial government.

3) China, unlike many developing world economies, was NOT dirt poor before the 20th century. 18 of the last 20 centuries, China’s per capita GDP was the highest in the world. A series of poor governments and opportunistic Malthusians saw China for what it was and were smart enough to take advantage of the situation. That’s fair. But China was not in the dark ages prior to Western industrialization. Instead, China seems to be returning to the forefront of economic leadership after a 200 (historically 500) hiatus.

There are many aspects of China (and Asian culture) that we westerners are unaware of. It would benefit us greatly to study these peoples as they will either be our greatest benefactor or our greatest enemy in the coming years ahead.