China is falling into the trap that it used to fell into.  While China made leaps and bounds in terms of climbing back into relevancy and prosperity, the Chinese leadership has to understand that most of the gains were not because of the policies that it instituted but rather the capabilities, motivations, talents and work ethic of that are inherent in Chinese people.  All they did was to open up and the people did the rest.  

What the Chinese leadership must do that are crucial is to steer China into the 21st century, to set policies to help the Chinese people to thrive, to integrate into the world economy, to provide leadership in emerging global issues, to gradually assimilate into the global culture and to provide Chinese people a way to integrate into global citizenry.

The Chinese history is so long that we can look back and take so many examples to learn from.  Time and time again, the isolationism and legalistic traits that are inherent in our leadeships come back to bite us.  Lee Kuan Yew managed to identfy this and created a hybrid system where it tempers our weaknesses and pushes forward our strengths.  To do that, one needs patience and cooperation with other countries.  Singapore is in direct competition with giant neighbours such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.  Malaysia and Indonesia are hostile and would jump at the chance of seeing Singapore sink immediately. But Singapore didn't use bully tactics or aggressive maneuvers to gain advantage but rather delicate diplomacy while not backing down on anything of vital national interests.  The Xinjiang issue shoudn't be where it is today if the Chinese leaders know how to play the cards right.  Just like the Singapore chewing gum fiasco but only one thousand times fold.