And while we should commend China for the impressive freedom of its citizens and the resulting economic wealth, we should forget the humble messenger. Isn't it great that we have such stalwart libertarian scholars like the hoover institution that helpfully point out and commend nations that are truly free. With institutions like these in the US, I bet every dictator in the world is shaking in his boots.
Also the Chinese wanted reform and the Russians did not. Gorbachev somehow conned the entire Soviet Union to end communism when everyone wanted it to keep going.
Basicaly a lot of lessons learned.
I think it's saying that Russia being more urbanized, the Russians' lives were much better off to begin with, so there wasn't as much momentum for change. If you compare per capita GDP, Russia is still about three times as much as China, the margin was even bigger back then.
The reform happened mostly in the countryside, while in cities the workers under the protective umbrella of state-owned enterprises were much more resistant to change. It just happened that Russia had a larger portion city workers than China.
Regarding your other argument you are giving the writer too much credit and putting words in his mouth. He does not mention comparative GDP.
Fine, mod me down, but I should let you know that you are either a communist deadender that denies the powers of free enterprise or a capitalist imperialist pig and enemy of communism (depending on which jurisdiction you currently reside in). Either way, its a bad thing.