Can China's success still beat the middle-income trap?

Indeed, Jin casts the Chinese economic miracle as a political-economy story. The preservation of social stability was, in many ways, at least as important as economic growth and dynamism. This obviously makes sense for the Chinese Communist Party which wants to maintain control, and that control depends on social cohesion. I must confess that, to paraphrase US Senator Sam Ervin, since "I'm just an economist" this is all rather puzzling. How does China grow so fast for so long with a large degree of central control? How can a "winner picking" central government consistently pick winners? And how can a…