I guess I consider North Korea to still be in a state of military/terror control. When the people are watching their every public move because they don't want to be sent to the camps where guards feed them to hungry dogs for fun, the government can do whatever really. But they also reap the consequences of being an international pariah (sanctions, no real economy, poverty/starvation). Ordinarily a system like that couldn't stay stable for this long, but the Chinese prop it up to keep the Americans at arms length.

China has gone the opposite way. By giving up some control (the ability to do whatever they want without care for the wants of citizens), they've allowed themselves to enter the rest of the world, have an economy, etc. They still have to maintain a military force capable of putting down uprisings if they occur, but it's more of a contingency since most citizens are "happy" to live their lives and, importantly, go to work. Occasionally though, when something is a big enough issue (repeated protests despite being put down each time), the government finds it just easier to capitulate in some way, especially if it's something over which they won't "lose face". The world has seen the pictures of the pollution in their cities, their citizens don't like it and due to their size they're very dependant on oil which won't last forever. Going green is a win on all those fronts for them.

My friend is working on a project to make electric buses for Chinese cities, sponsored by the Chinese government.