Spoiler: The Chinese growth is slowing down. Communist China will never be able to make it to the richest economies even if it becomes the largest economy due to its size. Even if the Chinese has moved up the value-added ladder, it will become never become as innovative as USA.
Knowledge and innovation are not only cumulative, but they are also collaborative processes. The formation of these depends on interactions between scientists, researchers and other people involved in the innovation process. Free access to flows of information and knowledge is reinforcing the processes. Such conditions are more often found in democracies than in autocracies which explains why the former type of countries are more attractive to live and work in. Furthermore, scientists and researchers that move from autocracies to democracies become more productive.
Further obstacles are the prioritization of the SOEs and the demographic change. Pouring investments and ordering banks to throw good money after bad is hampering growth. The Chinese working age population is getting older and smaller. But the communist regime is committing is committing genocide instead of trying to reverse that development.
