Piers Tang Building on Garry Wills’ A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government (2013), East Asian societies often accept policies that Americans might consider heavy-handed, such as industrial planning, high-stakes exams like China’s Gaokao, or strict anti-drug measures. This difference reflects contrasting social contracts: in much of East Asia, the government is empowered to … Read more
Drawing on the arguments of The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market (Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, 2023), the contrast between China and the United States in implementing industrial policy reflects deeply divergent historical, political, and cultural foundations. In the United States, decades of ideological … Read more
The United States and China both operate mixed economic systems that combine market mechanisms with government intervention, yet they represent contrasting ends of the mixed-economy spectrum. The U.S. model is predominantly market-led, privileging private enterprise, price signals, and decentralized decision-making, with the state acting largely as a regulator and stabilizer. China, by contrast, follows a … Read more
Lee Kuan Yew’s remark that “China wants to be China and accepted as such, not as an honorary member of the West” captures a core truth about China’s modern rise. More than a diplomatic stance, it reflects a civilizational logic that distinguishes China from most other emerging powers. Whereas many postcolonial states have pursued modernization … Read more
The electric vehicle (EV) and EV battery industries offer a clear lens through which to compare the mixed-economy models of the United States and China. Although the United States pioneered many foundational EV technologies—ranging from early electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries to the commercialization breakthroughs of firms like Tesla—China has emerged as the dominant force … Read more
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) marks the most consequential shift in U.S. industrial policy in batteries and electric vehicles in half a century, while the CHIPS and Science Act performs an analogous role for semiconductors. Though publicly framed as climate, competitiveness, and national security legislation, the operational logic of both statutes closely mirrors core elements … Read more
In China’s industrial policy, overcapacity is not a failure but a deliberate feature, sharply distinguishing it from the experiences of Western Europe, the United States, and Japan. Whereas liberal market economies tend to view excess capacity as inefficiency and policy error—because firms cannot sustain prolonged losses, governments struggle to coordinate at scale, and political systems … Read more
China has pursued what can be described as a “proof by exhaustion” strategy to avoid the risks of path dependence and technological lock-in. Rather than committing early to a single foreign standard, China systematically explored multiple competing technologies, integrating innovation with scale-driven feedback loops. In earlier decades, China’s long hesitation before selecting one imported system … Read more
Huawei’s trajectory is often misread as a contradiction: a company that adopted American management practices yet became the target of American sanctions. In reality, there is no paradox. By learning from IBM, Huawei internalized the logic of large-scale industrial organization—process discipline, global integration, and operational resilience. It then fused those methods with Chinese organizational norms, … Read more
In recent years, a notable cohort of U.S. tech leaders—including Marc Andreessen, Elon Musk, Eric Schmidt, Sam Altman, Jensen Huang, and Reid Hoffman—has voiced admiration for China’s approach to technology development. This “China envy” is not about endorsing authoritarianism, but rather reflects a recognition of China’s growing ability to coordinate, execute, and deploy technology at … Read more