FED, thank you for your posts re flying helicopters in China. When I was at Changi (1963-66) I developed a healthy respect for the Singapore Chinese who were the driving force of the island's economy. In those days they, and the rest of the overseas Chinese, used to remit large amounts of the wealth they created back to the mother country and to their families there. Perhaps that habit still pertains, for family and as you say respect for one's elders is very strong in their culture, but China has come on enormously in the meantime as we are all only too well aware.
The common sense pragmatism that you describe with which China developed its civil aviation is surely the story of China itself in microcosm. What an enormous distance they have travelled since being at the mercy of the Japanese Empire. Of course they still have great contrasts and contradictions to resolve, witness the unrest in HK right now. Of course the Party presides over everything, for better or for worse, but it is clear that China is set to be the world's leading super power, and rather sooner than later I would suggest. Your posts give us an insight as to why that is.