China's authoritarian system has been promoting itself as superior to American democracy for more than a decade. The global financial crisis devastated the US economy while China emerged largely unscathed, and Beijing's propaganda machine seized on the contrast: "The 'China model' has created miracles, opened a unique path of development and superseded belief in a superior 'America model,' marking its demise," proclaimed the People's Daily in 2009. https://www.smh.com.au/national/the...itical-system-has-failed-20200531-p54y6a.html