I think the difference in China vs elsewhere is that the powerful people are state/party functionaries, not a bunch of rich guys. Not that they don’t become rich via the state, but they don’t claim the state power because they are rich. If I may be allowed a diversion, this is similar to the difference between the Imperial Medieval Roman Bureaucracy (in Constantinople) vs the feudal European Monarchies in the west. Byzantium actually has been described as functionally very close to a one party state.
I wrote “ostensibly”.
I think the difference in China vs elsewhere is that the powerful people are state/party functionaries, not a bunch of rich guys. Not that they don’t become rich via the state, but they don’t claim the state power because they are rich. If I may be allowed a diversion, this is similar to the difference between the Imperial Medieval Roman Bureaucracy (in Constantinople) vs the feudal European Monarchies in the west. Byzantium actually has been described as functionally very close to a one party state.