> I would just be careful to discount the capitalist West.

I would. It's showing the weaknesses and limitations of its ideology.

> You’d have to be blind to ignore the massive overbuilding of property in China, which they are now demolishing. All of that wasted capital.

So what?

> Authoritarian regimes with controlled media always seem successful… Up until the USSR collapsed there were many prominent people in the West saying it was the superior system.

The West is literally de-industrializing and can't seem to built shit except slowly and expensively. Industry after industry gets hollowed out as China takes the lead.

Do not make the mistake of reasoning about US vs China from the experience of US vs USSR. China doesn't have a command economy, outproduces the US, and controls many key industries. The US is resting on its laurels, and its people cope by thinking of the few industries where it's still ahead, but those are dwindling.

> The market test - meaning floating prices and the response to them - is a superior way of allocating capital.

That's not truth, it's a dogmatic assumption.

China has been able to exploit a dogmatic belief in the free market to siphon the real capital out of the West and into itself (industry and know-how) in order to achieve dominance. The US elite is content to have paper. We'll see how that works out.

> We need to see how all of this plays out

If you're rooting for China. If you're rooting for the US, by then it will be too late to course correct.