Mostly, this is a very good thing. The rise of China, and the related, albeit slightly slower, emergence of India, is the story of hundreds of millions of very poor people joining the global economy and getting a little richer. Gross domestic product per capita in those two countries was basically stagnant from 1820 to 1950. Then, it increased 68 percent from 1950 to 1973, and a whopping 245 percent from 1973 to 2002.
But we need to be careful not to draw the wrong lessons from China's resurrection. The most dangerous one is that authoritarianism works.
No, authoritarianism doesn't work. Having a middle to upper class that outmasses the entire American population does.