I think the major point missed by countries subdued by the west is that one tends to explain failures in terms of individual wrong decisions with catastrophic results.<p>This misses a much more profound point. Just as many stupid decisions was made in Europe but because Europe was not united an individual stupid decision from somebody at the top never brought the whole continent to a standstill. European disunity was a blessing. Stupid decision could never survive long because every European country was in fierce competition with its neighbors.<p>Unity has high pay offs while good decisions are made, but as shown in the case with China, one wrong decision at the top and it risks dooming the whole country.<p>China still suffers the same problem. The future of over 1 billion people depends on one communist party keep making the right decisions. At any time they risk getting the wrong guy at the top and bring all advances they have made thus far to a halt.