Comment by hnthrowaway0315

Chinese government in general doesn't just "get" a factory. They need to compensate private owners too if they need to use their land. But the state owns every piece of the land (it's a bit more complicated than that, especially not true for rural where collective ownership is a big thing).

IMO, labelling governments as "authoritarian" sometimes gives an inaccurate outlook. The government is not a single person that just orders other people around and magically gets nods everywhere. It's an organization and you can expect all kinds of messy and chaotic stuffs in it.

I have lived under both "kinds" of governments and I feel the democratic ones have a lot of "authoritarian" elements in it too, especially nowadays when national security touches everything. And surprisingly it is way more effective than the "authoritarian" government I lived in.