Criteria like "not starving", "not being murdered", "not being raped", "not being put into concentration camp for following your own religion", "not being imprisoned for criticizing the government" is pretty objective, and I have yet to see a culture where being raped and murdered is praised and desired by people. I am sure whatever are the cultural differences in China, they like starvation, rape, murder and imprisonment as little as we do. So the country which does such things to its citizens, massively, is not "doing well", even if its citizens aren't allowed to say so aloud (and that's another sign it's not doing well - "I can't complain" can mean two things, and in China it means you'd be in prison if you do).