If you look at GDP per capita figures for China vs. India, they were mostly comparable until about 1990 (India was actually slightly in the lead): https://data.

If you look at GDP per capita figures for China vs. India, they were mostly comparable until about 1990 (India was actually slightly in the lead): https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?end=1990&locations=CN-IN&start=1960 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?end=1990... After 1990, China really took off: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?locations=CN-IN&start=1990 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location... Of course China didn't suddenly turn authoritarian in 1990, so this is not a democracy vs. authoritarianism issue. Rather, it's that the authoritarian decided to change the way they were doing things. (Deng Xiaoping's "reform and opening up".)