The way China operates is completely the opposite of the way the US operates. Here is a video on Yanis Varoufakis explaining how.

Taiwan for one is richer, stronger and happier than China per capita so does that mean dictatoriship -> democracy is a better system

Everything in that sentence is factually untrue, I need to get some of the stuff you’re smoking because it must be crazy strong.

There’s no way to verify how other political system would have worked for China

It’s very easy to know. India and China have similar landmass, population, and got their independence at around the same time.

The difference between the two is that China’s people democracy is an objectively superior system to bourgeois dictatorships they have in India and Taiwan.

It’s ridiculous to compare mainland China with Taiwan, as that island is incredibly small and therefore much, much faster to develop, and it received a lot in investments from the USA as they need a strong ally at the PRC’s borders to support their hegemony. Look at south Korea for another example.

China is a gigantic country, larger than the USA, that was still aggrarian just 50 years ago. They are still developing and there is a large disparity in earning between the developed coastal areas in the east, and the undeveloped west. The prices you see on the app a from the coastal areas where salaries are similar to western Europe.