Modern China is, by many measures, the greatest success story in the history of humanity.

According to the World Bank, more than 850 million Chinese have been lifted out of extreme

poverty in recent decades, with the country's poverty rate falling from 88% in 1981 to just

0.7% in 2015.

Just this year, the country announced they had in fact eliminated extreme poverty.

All while posting economic growth and leading the fight against COVID.

Its GDP has tripled since 2008, and already by one measure, it's larger than the United

States.

Meanwhile, China has constructed high-speed rail across the country spanning some 35,000

miles in the last 15 years, and is gradually seeing its economic might percolate through

to cultural and political influence.

In AI, synthetic biology, and renewable technology, it is starting to even take on the best

of the West.

Yet, we're also told it is a repressive corrupt regime where workers and civil rights

are non-existent, and where minorities, particularly in Xinjiang and Tibet, face repression,

forced labour, and massive state violence.

Leading companies like Huawei may be starting to compete with the biggest names in Europe

and North America, but they are also, so we're told, a Trojan horse, the Chinese Communist

Party, to extend its perfidious authoritarian reach.

In short, the rise of China is bad news for Democrats, and those who care about social

justice.

So which is it?

...