Recommended reading: "The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century" by Stein Ringen [1], who is not some alt-right nutwing hack but somebody who made a career out of dissecting societies and took on China fresh off South Korea. I hope I won't excessively spoil the experience by saying that he would not agree with your assessment.

[1] http://www.hkupress.org/Common/Reader/Products/ShowProduct.j...