Why do Chinese people think that prosperity is tall buildings, is scanning to pay, is expressways, and is more toilets—rather than individual happiness, individual autonomy, and individual interests? Because so often, we mistake “visible scale” and “convenience we are forced to adapt to” for real progress. Scan-to-pay payment may seem everywhere and extremely efficient, but behind it there is often reliance on a single system: you must have a phone, internet access, and the ability to operate it, or you can’t get a single step further. In some mature societies, however, multiple methods coexist—card payments, cash, NFC—and the choice always remains with the individual.

As for so-called “leading,” if it comes at the cost of sacrificing privacy, shrinking people’s options, or even excluding some people, it is less like a comfortable evolution and more like a collective adaptation driven by helplessness. True prosperity is not just making most people faster, but ensuring that everyone is not left behind; it’s not about hiding complexity inside systems and forcing everyone to adapt, but about allowing people with different habits and different abilities to live with dignity. When a society can run at high speed and still stay orderly even when the network goes down; when young people can live with the most advanced ways of doing things, and the elderly don’t have to be forced to chase technology—then this respect and inclusion for individuals is what prosperity is really about.