Capitalism is not a single, uniform system. There are different models of capitalism, with different values, incentives, and long-term outcomes.
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
In Western discourse, “rebalancing” between China and the West is often framed as a neutral, technical adjustment—addressing trade imbalances, supply-chain resilience, or national security concerns. Yet this language obscures its political function. Rather than a dispassionate economic correction, rebalancing frequently operates as a tool of power, shaped by a global order historically structured around Western … Read more
China’s state-led capitalism operates through a dual-track system that distinguishes market-driven enterprises from state-function entities. Firms overseen by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) compete, generate profits, and undergo market-oriented restructuring, while a parallel set of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) under the Ministry of Finance function as instruments of national policy, safeguarding fiscal stability, … Read more
At its core, the tension between China and the West is not primarily ideological, military, or economic—it is psychological. The underlying driver is fear, shaped by the West’s historical experience of rising to power through conquest, colonization, and external domination. Accustomed to interpreting global influence through this lens, Western powers often assume that any ascending … Read more
The vast, commanding landscape of the Guanzhong Plain, nestled between the Qinling Mountains, offers a striking contrast to the intimate, enclosed regions of southern China, shaped by rivers, hills, and coastlines. This geographic divide not only defines the diverse internal landscapes of China but also lays the foundation for fundamentally different ways of living and … Read more