China’s rise shows prosperity without Western liberalism, growth from state–market fusion, and tech modernity without alignment—proof modernity is plural.
Engineering capability—the ability to transform theoretical and technological innovations into practical products—has long been a cornerstone of national competitiveness. The United States, once a global leader in this domain, has experienced a gradual decline due to a complex interplay of factors: overdevelopment of the service and financial sectors leading to industrial hollowing out, globalization and … Read more
The United States misread the lessons of the Cold War, while China accurately understood the dynamics of the post–Cold War world. Today, as the U.S. and China compete in technology, it is imperative to draw concrete lessons from this divergence. In strategic competition, reality does not bend to values; outcomes are determined by capacity, cost, … Read more
In U.S. discourse, the end of the Cold War was often framed as a moral triumph of “right values” over authoritarianism, fostering a tendency to interpret global affairs through ideological certainty rather than material constraints. This narrative dulled strategic judgment by treating outcomes as ideologically inevitable, even as the Soviet collapse itself was driven less … Read more
The fall of General Electric, as chronicled in Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric (Thomas Gryta and Ted Mann, 2020), offers a sobering yet instructive case study for China’s manufacturing sector. Rather than a cautionary tale of inevitable decline, GE’s experience serves as an analytical framework for examining how structural weaknesses … Read more
In Finance and the Real Economy: China and the West Since the Asian Financial Crisis (2020), Peter Nolan argues that China’s post-2008 development trajectory was shaped by a distinctive framework of state-led finance, infrastructure-led growth, and long-term industrial strategy. In response to the global financial crisis, China launched a coordinated wave of investment in “new … Read more
In Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2007), Ha-Joon Chang offers both direct and indirect critiques of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, challenging not only Weber’s specific claims but also the broader tendency to treat cultural morality as the definitive explanation for capitalism’s … Read more
Milton Friedman and other neoliberal economists long admired Hong Kong as a rare empirical demonstration of laissez-faire principles in practice. Under Financial Secretary John James Cowperthwaite (1961–1971), Hong Kong pursued minimal government intervention, low and stable taxes, strict fiscal discipline, open trade as a free port, and a deliberate avoidance of subsidies or welfare programs. … Read more
Faced with China’s industrial ascent, Germany is undergoing not merely a reactive adjustment but a deeper process of structural reflection and strategic recalibration. China is not a “newly industrialized nation” in the conventional sense; it is the only country encompassing all industrial categories defined by the UN, accounts for nearly 30 percent of global manufacturing … Read more
Huawei’s decision not to manufacture cars represents a rational act of strategic restraint and deliberate ecosystem positioning. It reflects a clear-eyed assessment of the company’s core competencies, organizational structure, systemic risks, and sources of long-term value, rather than a retreat from the automotive domain. By avoiding full vehicle manufacturing while focusing on enabling technologies, Huawei … Read more
The question of how China can maintain its status as the world’s factory over the next decade is, in many respects, already outdated. Rather than merely preserving a scale-based manufacturing role, China is rapidly transitioning toward a “smart, systems-based world manufacturing hub,” integrating advanced technologies, industrial depth, and platform-level coordination. This shift reflects a broader … Read more