>>212677557 (OP)China is too oppressive for "good times", the West exploded in power during great times of liberation that were still dominated by a conservative culture, think of the period from the Renaissance to the early 20th century, you need a kind of hypocritical society, where sex is taboo but you can still publish Marquis de Sade, and drug use is taboo but they still sell cocaine in every pharmacy, this is what built the West, since the inception of liberal democracies and over-regulated and actually oppressive paternalist states our prowess and momentum dwindled down, expectedly.