Why would you need to visit China to have an opinion that could be arrived at by looking at financials - a common practice in measuring success. Just look at a portfolio of large Chinese companies - they are doing well, thus I would also hypothesize that they are well-run companies.

The numerical data to which you have access is not necessarily accurate. Corruption, bribery, fabricated numerical data are par for the course here.

He was talking about China as a country and as an economy. If you come and visit, it is immediately obvious that there are problems.

Just because there are problems does not necessarily mean that (as a whole) it is being run poorly.

Chinese firms are riding a huge wave of growth driven by wage differentials. In this macro context, it's easy to make a lot of money with poor management.