By the yardstick that both the CIA and the IMF have adopted as the single best measure of national economies, China now has the largest economy in the world.

What are you talking about "struggling to maintain it's democracy". Have you read the founding documents and the letters among the nation's founders? "We must protect the opulent minority. The Senate will be that body". The Electoral College. The 3/5s compromise was not a moral thing, it was a power thing - it gave slave owners more votes. The USA's democracy is functioning exactly as it was designed and isn't straying from that path in the least.

The US is not a democracy, it's a capitalist dictatorship.