It's not surprising if you think about the difference between free speech and having censorship laws that limit peasants. I learned that when I first traveled around Asia.

Your ability to be creative is limited in China. People there can't make art that makes fun of Mao. They can't protest against local police corruption. They can't form groups that appear to be anti-government. For all of this you can be tossed in jail for a few days. Jail is demoralizing and disruptive.

If your contribution to society comes through speech that the government does not like, you'll be put down. You'll end up less willing to contribute to society than Americans who hate their bosses. Instead of a bad boss, it's a bad country leader, and that's much much harder to get out from under.

I suppose one day everyone in China could just decide to go to jail peacefully; that would be unmanageable for the government.. it could take a lot of noise to get that message out and there is some risk of violence. Police sometimes see themselves as judge and jury, and in China where speaking can be against the law, violence against peaceful protesters is not unheard of even in 2016.

Before I came to Asia I did not think much about free speech. If you asked me what made America great before I moved here, I'd have said it's complex. I wasn't even sure America is great.

Now I would say it's more simple: true democratic governments are not allowed to throw people in jail for speaking their minds.

The first step China can take towards sustainable economic growth, better research and education, is to prevent the government from imprisoning people for speaking their minds. You really need as many people thinking creatively and working hard as possible in order to be competitive. Society is about working together and digging out the best ideas. It's not about silencing people.

Until then, expect to see the most intelligent Chinese continue to leave to live elsewhere, pollution to rage further out of control, and free countries' companies to come and go from China. China's judicial system is worse than the free countries' for the same reason.

Shenzhen is most polluted?

Also I don't think the author means it that literally. He wants to be in this time, not locally close to the development I think. "there" = "The next decade"

America gets its free speech by defining the word to mean any communication that's permitted to be free. If the law disallows something then by definition it's not speech anymore, or it's an exception that's so obvious nobody mentions it. Examples: Flag burning, copyright infringement, libel, slander, threats, incitement to violence, child pornography, false advertising, revealing state secrets and trade secrets, violating NDAs, sharing insider information about listed companies. Wow, there's quite a lot of things you're not allowed to say in America!

It's a bit like Athenian democracy where everyone could vote. Of course women, children, slaves and foreigners obviously weren't part of "everyone" so there's no need to mention them.

And then the US has these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone

Also sedition seems to still be illegal in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition#United_States

Most of what you listed is not allowed most countries + more restrictions. Compared to most other countries America has fewest restrictions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Protection_Act

It's true most other countries have even less freedom of speech, but my point was that it's not black and white. Each country is different and none are very free at all. It should be called "fairly free political speech as long as you aren't too specific in calling for overthrow of the government" or a briefer form of that.