I am Thai, so Iu2019m mostly familiar with Thailand. I do know a little bit about Chinese history and have travelled to China. I can comment on the differences between China and Thailand.Firstly I would say the key differences (and very important one) is the level of political stability and government corruption. Despite not having been colonised and not being a communist country, Thailand doesn't have a stable & effective democratic institution like other Western democracies. The kind of democracies we have in Thailand isn't much to be proud of (I'm ashamed to say this as a Thai person).Corruption is very rampant. Thailand was ruled by various military governments. I was born in the late 70s. In my lifetime there had been four military coups, two failed coup attempts and 19 prime ministers. The constitutions were rewritten a few times. Thailand is now ruled by a self-appointed military junta government.Political reforms in Thailand (and perhaps in the Phillipines and Indonesia) didn't really started until the 1990s. We all know about how u2018people poweru2022 uprising in the Phillipines and Indonesia toppled big men like Marcos and Suharto. The same thing happened in Thailand in 1992. Other countries that benefited from economic growths have had pretty stable government and visionary leaders eg. Mahatir in Malaysia, Lee Kuan Yu in Singapore.Thailand only recently had civilian elected governments. The political landscape is quite messy. We have people from the opposite sides of the political spectrums (red vs yellow shirts) going at each other at street protests. It calmed down a lot since the janta came to power. However, I don't see this kind of mass political unrest happening in China.In terms of economic development, both China and Thailand are considered Newly Industrialised Countries. They both have export based economies (China ranked no.1 Thailand ranked no.21). Thailand has done a good job in alleviating poverty and so does China. Thailand per capita GDP (PPP) is just slightly ahead of China, but I think China will probably overtake Thailand soon.Thailand has a large manufacturing sector, particularly auto manufacturing, electronic components, computer hard drives etc. Also contrary to common perceptions, the tourism sector in Thailand represents only about 10% of the GDP.Chinau2019s economic miracle can be attributed to one man, Deng Xiao Ping. He opened up China to foreign trade & investments and set up Special Economic Zones. He also negotiated with Margaret Thatcher a successful handover of Hong Kong from the British in 1997.In comparison, Thailand's economic development has been a big roller coaster ride. In the 80s and early 90s Thailand was the worldu2019s fastest growing economy with double digit growths. The bubble burst in 1996u20131997 causing the collapse of the financial sectors. Some local banks were acquired by overseas banks. The floating of the Thai Baht in 1997 caused the currency to plunge by 30u201340% against the $US dollars and triggered the Asian economic crisis. $US17 Billion bailout termed was agreed with the IMF. There was a period of austerity however all the loan was repaid to the IMF (and earlier) by 2022. Thailand now has the second largest foreign reserves in ASEAN after Singapore.In terms of wealth distribution, Thailandu2019s development is largely focussed around Bangkok and the Eastern seaboard. For historical reasons the country was always ruled from the capital. I see more of the rural regions undergoing development in the last 10 years. I don't know much about China in this regard. I have only ever visited large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou. They are quite comparable to Bangkok.Overall, I think if there's a reason why China is wealthier then I think it simply come down to political stability and the focus of economic development ie. more focus on urbanisation in China which comes with greater economic opportunities. Also don't forget China is the worldu2019s third largest country with population of over a billion compared to Thailandu2019s 64 million and for a country the size of California. China definitely has a larger political and economic clout.