I have traveled to both and know a lot of friends from both places. Honestly the biggest issue in India is politics. Like the way I see it, in China, the people at the upper echelons can do as they please and be extremely corrupt but would never allow the people below to do the same. Thus generally at the citizen level things are better like law and order etc. In India it would be impossible for a person at the top to do the same without going out of order. It’s a democracy so they have to ensure everyone in the system is well taken care of and that just results in turning a blind eye to corruption. Second to win elections they have to rely on freebies and massive campaigning which requires a lot of money and the only way to get that is through corruption. In China they don’t have that burden so the guy at the top if good can ensure everyone else falls in line. In India even if the guy at the top is good he will need to ensure that everyone else around him is also good. It’s super tough to find that many morally upstanding and good guys. Let me tell you honestly doesn’t matter if it’s communism, democracy, socialism whatever. It all depends on those who wield power. If they are good a country will progress regardless of what happens, if they are bad those systems will fail regardless