China’s state sets goals, takes risks, and builds scale, while firms compete and innovate—an integrated system the market-driven U.S. struggles to match.
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
In The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life (2016), Anu Partanen argues that Nordic countries have preserved a model of freedom once practiced in the United States. Comparing the U.S. before and after the Reagan era—roughly the New Deal through the late 1970s versus the 1980s to the present—reveals how American … Read more
In The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life (2016), Anu Partanen challenges the common perception of Nordic countries as “socialist nanny states,” arguing that this label misunderstands both how their systems function and the type of freedom they foster. Her work highlights that the Nordic model offers a distinctive approach to … Read more
Industrial policy has been more successful in China than in Western Europe, the United States, and Japan because China uniquely combines strong state capacity, long-term political commitment, and market scale with the ability to coordinate firms, finance, and regulation toward strategic goals. In industries such as photovoltaic panels, EV batteries, display manufacturing, and telecommunications equipment, … Read more
China’s so-called “proof by exhaustion,” sometimes referred to as the “no-choice method” by Wang Tao of Fudan University, is best understood not as indecision or brute-force trial and error, but as a system-level strategy for development under extreme uncertainty. Designed for long time horizons and sustained geopolitical pressure, it reflects a distinct logic for managing … Read more