3rd world country or not - I hope you appreciate that you are incredibly fortunate for "ancient culture" and "history" to be 2 of your top 3 considerations for where to live and the quality of life that would give you.

Perhaps revalidate the "thriving economy" assertion before taking the plunge though (and be mindful of how hyper-localised that is).

Why did you choose to wake up as the child of a peasant in one country but the child of the president in another?

Quality of life is inherently tied to trust and morality - both in terms of the effect of fear (a lack of trust) or isolation (a lack of moral consensus, or equality and sense of shared belonging).

My question is not a false dilemma. As the link you gave points out, a false dilemma starts with a false premise which limits the subject to two absolutes when in-fact multiple exist. My question has no false premise, it's simply asking, if given this scenario, which would you choose and why. I am not saying that in reality you only have those options. The original comment setup the contrast of USA and China, so my question was a way to elucidate more about that contrast.