I would be careful with "even in China there is now an elite that dresses in suits and engages in trade unencumbered by rules and regulations that protect the millions that are pressed into working in their factories under appalling conditions".
The adoption of suits is just a fashion thing. China hasn't really developed its own sense of fashion coming out of the Mao era. It's not a sign of wholesale embrace of Western culture and ideals. On the contrary most Chinese are quite proud of their history and culture. What China has embraced since Deng Xiaoping was the pragmatic parts of Western society, i.e. methods of doing business, trade, and manufacturing.
China never really had a system of laws and regulations to protect its workers because it was never in a situation until now where it had millions working in dangerous industrial situations. Until recent decades, China was still largely agrarian.
In short, China didn't cast off its old ways and embraced Angloculture as much as it borrow bits and pieces it found useful. It remains to be seem if it can borrow pieces without taking everything and still have it work.
China is a dangerous counter to the narrative of the superiority of Western or Anglo ideals. If China is indeed successful in the long term with its mix of traditional Chinese authoritarianism and Western style capitalism, then other people and countries would see essays like this one as nonsense.
The adoption of suits is just a fashion thing. China hasn't really developed its own sense of fashion coming out of the Mao era. It's not a sign of wholesale embrace of Western culture and ideals. On the contrary most Chinese are quite proud of their history and culture. What China has embraced since Deng Xiaoping was the pragmatic parts of Western society, i.e. methods of doing business, trade, and manufacturing.
China never really had a system of laws and regulations to protect its workers because it was never in a situation until now where it had millions working in dangerous industrial situations. Until recent decades, China was still largely agrarian.
In short, China didn't cast off its old ways and embraced Angloculture as much as it borrow bits and pieces it found useful. It remains to be seem if it can borrow pieces without taking everything and still have it work.
China is a dangerous counter to the narrative of the superiority of Western or Anglo ideals. If China is indeed successful in the long term with its mix of traditional Chinese authoritarianism and Western style capitalism, then other people and countries would see essays like this one as nonsense.