Having to sign over one’s intellectual property to the state is not economic freedom. Those who deal with Red China care nothing for the human cost of satiating their greed; however, there are too many like-minded (to the Party) people running things in the USA now that make things too hard to do business here and thus China is posited as the “answer” to what is supposed to be a false dilemma.
I’m not saying US businesses are more free in China, though to some degree they are. Apple hasn’t signed over the IP for the iPhone to China in order to manufacture there. My point is that Chinese entrepreneurs have less red tape, regulation, taxation, litigation, unions, political correctness, diversity training, etc to deal with, so it is easier for them to start a business than for a comparable US entrepreneur to start a business in the US. It is one reason we celebrate 3% growth while China is disappointed with 7%.