[chii]

> Deng's approach would not work in a world where low cost manufacturing has moved overseas.

no, but the next step, which is to mimick what japan did post lost-decade, is to move into higher value manufacturing, increase automation and increase domestic service industry.

However, the required tech, research cooperation and transfers that would've been needed is going to need deep trust and cooperation between the west and china - that entails giving up the full authoritarian control of the economy. This isn't something the CCP can entertain, unlike japan.

China still has ambitions of becoming a superpower that can dictate terms on the world stage. I think this is the difference between Xi and Deng. Xi cannot move past being second fiddle. And i think this is the real cause for china's downfall (if it were to happen).