One really important thing about a dicatatorship whether you are a citizen or an outside observer, is that you cannot believe a single fucking thing they say, so I am assuming that all of the data about the PRC is a bunch of BS. No independent agency in China is gathering the data you discussed, because no one is allowed to. Those are all government figures, because those are the only figures anyone is allowed to use. In a dictatorship, public data and propaganda are exactly the same thing.

Perhaps you have heard about the show-down between Ukraine and Russia going on now. Germany is powerless to use any leverage on Russia because it's winter and they are absolutely reliant on Gazprom to provide them with energy because they shut down nuclear power out of environmental concerns. Where is the evolution in having the German economy beholden to Putin?