In retrospect, most Western sympathy for the Soviet Union and its satellites seems willfully blind. Intellectuals praised the Stalinist system in the 1930s even as millions were being condemned to the gulag, minorities were forced into starvation, and principled communists were murdered.

Even in the 1980s, there was a striking naivety; I remember one of my relatives praising East Germany for its "social order" at a time when one in every five East Germans was employed by the secret police as an informant.

But the existence of the Soviet Union did serve as a powerful spur to the Western powers. As English writer John Lanchester points out, the promises of the Soviets, however poorly they were sometimes fulfilled, offered a challenge to the West. The Western elite became increasingly conscious of the need to provide their people with a good life, lest the challenge of communism take root among the public.

As long as the Soviets were there, the two blocs were competing not only economically and militarily, but also over the quality of life itself. Even the dreams of 1960s and 1970s French Maoists, however detached from the brutal reality of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), played a powerful role in French social change.

It was a race that the Soviet Union brutally and abysmally lost. And with its collapse and the end of the Cold War, that challenge to the West disappeared. A new arrogance came to the US in particular, not only in how it treated the rest of the world, but in its attitude toward its own people. The public was sold out to the 1 percent, welfare in the West slashed and society damaged.

Those countries which most resisted this trend, such as the Scandinavian nations, and which put public needs ahead of corporate interests and the greed of the elite, have also been the most successful at providing sustainable wealth to their people and at offering an ideal for others to look to.

In an ideal world, a rising China could offer a new challenge to the West; not in terms of domination or global supremacy, but in the prosperity and security of a broad middle class. 

But right now, few in the West, bar a few crackpots, think the Chinese system offers a better life. With barebones welfare, a healthcare system ranked among the lowest in the world in terms of public access, and widespread discrimination against the poor, the "Chinese dream" has little appeal.

If China wants to sell itself to the outside world, it should further look to its own people. A happy, secure, free people are a better advertisement for a nation than 1,000 expensive adverts.

The author is an editor with the Global Times. jamespalmer@globaltimes.com.cn