The incarceration rate of the US in 1960 was about 225/100K, and in China it's currently around 120/100K, so China is doing a little better than we were 60 years ago.

Of course our incarceration rate now has nearly tripled to 640/100K, so thank God they're not following us.

Are you including the camps in XJ in that metric ?

No, behind implies that they are currently in the opposite direction of the current direction of western cultural movement. If the direction of our movement changes, they will, without lifting a finger, become ahead of us.

Social progress is inherently subjective (because progress in one value system is actually a regression in a different value system), and the observer always grounds their claim of 'behind' or 'ahead' in their culture's viewpoint.