China literally started at a baseline of famine still being a real worry in 1977 when Deng Xiaoping took over to their current growth. People want normal stuff-and if a billion people are held back from getting that and then let off the chain, of course growth is going to be off the charts spectacular. It’s like comparing the growth of a baby to that of a late teenager. All China’s authoritarian bs is just ultra-efficiency-human rights and freedoms be damned-it has nothing to do w/ economics. Deng Xiaoping saw the CCP as an efficient governing structure, not as an ideological organization per se.