Capitalism is not a single, uniform system. There are different models of capitalism, with different values, incentives, and long-term outcomes.
1. Lessons from Historical Technological Shifts 1.1 From Spears to Machine Guns: The Arc of Military Innovation Military innovation has consistently reshaped the art of warfare, from the tightly disciplined formations of ancient armies to the mechanized firepower of the 20th century. In the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great perfected the Macedonian phalanx, a … Read more
I. How Social Circles Shape Life Trajectories In both China and the United States, long-term outcomes are shaped less by isolated achievements and more by the social circles in which individuals operate. Networks influence access to information, opportunity, trust, and mobility; they determine who is considered, who is recommended, and who advances. While the mechanisms, … Read more
In Globalization and National Competition: A Comparative Study of the Seven Emerging Economies (2021), Wen Tiejun conducts a comparative analysis of China and India that centers on their historical trajectories, economic structures, and approaches to crisis management. The book’s core conclusion is that China built a substantially stronger structural foundation for industrialization than India. This … Read more
I. The Zhang Weiying–Lin Yifu Debate: A Dispute Frozen in Time 1. A Clash of Perspectives, Not Competence: The Zhang Weiying vs. Lin Yifu Debate The long-standing debate between Zhang Weiying and Lin Yifu, especially their high-profile 2014 academic confrontation at the Yang Xiaokai memorial symposium, is often misconstrued as a battle of intellectual prowess. … Read more
In Globalization and National Competition: A Comparative Study of the Seven Emerging Economies (2021), Wen Tiejun argues that China is the only major emerging economy to have secured land, industrial, financial, and state sovereignty prior to deep integration into globalization. By contrast, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Venezuela, and South Africa entered the global system with … Read more
Yi Wen’s The Making of an Economic Superpower and Ha-Joon Chang’s Kicking Away the Ladder and Bad Samaritans converge on a single, historically grounded claim: modern industrialization follows a universal and sequential logic. Britain pioneered this process during the Industrial Revolution, while China, after 1978, rediscovered and dramatically compressed it. Despite profound differences in political … Read more
Level 1: How Institutional Design Governs Work Behavior Before Culture Does At the most fundamental level, patterns of work and competition are determined less by cultural values than by the institutional environments in which individuals operate. When incentives, constraints, and protections are structured in specific ways, behavior adjusts accordingly. Europe offers a clear illustration of … Read more
I. How State-Led Capitalism Operates in Practice China’s system of state-led capitalism is best understood as a pragmatic hybrid rather than an ideological extreme. It does not resemble Soviet-style central planning, nor does it follow Western laissez-faire principles. Under normal conditions, production and allocation are largely market-driven, with firms competing, innovating, and responding to demand … Read more
I. Gratitude or Reciprocity? Reframing the Meaning of China’s WTO Accession At the heart of debates over China’s rise lies a fundamental question: should China’s integration into the global economy be understood in terms of gratitude and patronage, or as the outcome of mutual interest among sovereign actors? The assertion that China “owes” its development … Read more
1. Civilizational and Cultural Foundations 1.1 Ethnic Continuity and Civilizational Resilience in Comparative Perspective China and the Soviet Union were both multi-ethnic polities, yet their internal cohesion and long-term resilience differed in fundamental ways. China has historically been anchored by a dominant and enduring cultural core, shaped by a civilization with several millennia of continuity. … Read more