Sorry, but you're just 100% wrong. You're describing some version of China from the 1960s, not today.
People in China are not told where to live, or what job to do. The government makes use of various macro-economic tools to steer the economy much more forcefully than in Europe perhaps, and perversely, the market forces (w/ Chinese characteristics!) are also fairly brutal and fast-changing, but people mostly choose their own professions and locations and in many respects, society behaves pretty similarly to the US/Europe.
The system is still the same. You still need government approval as a Chinese to live in another city. There are many free economic zones where you can almost do anything you want. But the underlining system is still the same.
I am in China right now. I lived in a ghost city just last year.
People in China are not told where to live, or what job to do. The government makes use of various macro-economic tools to steer the economy much more forcefully than in Europe perhaps, and perversely, the market forces (w/ Chinese characteristics!) are also fairly brutal and fast-changing, but people mostly choose their own professions and locations and in many respects, society behaves pretty similarly to the US/Europe.