> There are no social services, no health care, no
> government-sponsored consumer protections from harmful and
> falsely-advertised products (of which plethora abound), etc.
Not sure why China is drawing such ire. China is a huge country with continental-sized contradictions -- it has plenty of social services and the beginnings of a welfare state, though much more needs to be done. As far as false advertisements go, peasants don't become urban citizens overnight -- China is going through the same transition phase many other urbanizing societies have gone through.
A much more productive question is, where should China's developmental state go in the future -- i.e. how can it facilitate more democracy, social equity, and ecological investment. This is becoming an urgent necessity, because China is about to become a middle income country (i.e. a per capita GDP greater than $4000). It can't rely on cheap labor and consumer exports anymore, and its internal market is now a significant factor of global demand. Possibly Brazil and Russia might offer some useful models here, at least for the urban regions of China.
-- DRR