I can't say whether China will be a better steward, but I want to point out that the United States was very much like this 100 to 150 years ago, when it was rap

I can't say whether China will be a better steward, but I want to point out that the United States was very much like this 100 to 150 years ago, when it was rapidly industrializing. Its free speech and judicial record was generally better, but in World War I, people were jailed without trial simply for speaking out against the war. I suspect that 100 years from now, things will be different for China. Cheap wages will have gone away, manufacturing will be outsourced to places like the Phillipines or Africa, people will be wealthy enough to care about things besides money, particularly the environment. The authoritarian government and the class of ultra-wealthy may or may not still be there, but what China is going through looks a lot like what the US and european countries were experiencing during their industrialization phases. One interesting difference is that China so far hasn't shown much interest in politically and militarily dominating other parts of the world. So far, it seems to be interested in dominating the east Asia region. I wonder if that will remain so, or if China will eventually be interested in getting involved in other parts of the world in non-economic ways. China is very involved in the African economy, so that could very well progress to Chinese puppet states in Africa if their economic interest is great enough.