It can. If you have money in China, you are much more free than in the West. Because laws only apply to you to a very little extent. You killed five people while speeding drunk? One phone call and problem solved.

The question is not freedom but legal security. Here in China you never know when the goverment will show up and take you money or company away from you.

China is quite free compared to most western countries. If you have money you are pretty much free to do as you please as long as you keep your head down. There are two types of crimes in China crimes that get you put away forever or executed and crimes that you just pay the officer for. Every regulation in China is basically a tax, you pay someone and it is solved.

That is a kind of freedom, perhaps, but it isn't liberty. China is notoriously short on liberty.

Americans think that everyone whats to be American. It is all part of a narcissism that is crippling the American economy.