The U.S. shed factories and the skills around them, while China accepted inefficiency to build complete industrial systems and long-term manufacturing power.
China’s land finance model represents a distinctive financial innovation rooted in its state-owned land system. Instead of selling land outright, the state auctions land use rights and channels the resulting revenue into large-scale infrastructure development. Institutions such as China Development Bank, backed by sovereign credit, issue bonds to finance both domestic and international projects. This … Read more
Over the 20th century, the United States led the world in technological innovation, driven in large part by industrial research laboratories such as Bell Labs, Xerox PARC, and IBM Research. These institutions combined long-term vision, interdisciplinary collaboration, and stable funding to produce breakthroughs that transformed industries and everyday life. Today, however, the landscape of innovation … Read more
This comparison links Bell Labs’ model with China’s land-finance-backed industrial strategy, showing how both employ strategic risk and investment in core industries to secure long-term dominance. Bell Labs achieved technological leadership by investing heavily in foundational R&D, accepting high upfront costs and uncertain returns to drive breakthroughs. Similarly, China channels land-sale revenues into strategic sectors, … Read more
The United States adopts a notably absolutist interpretation of certain civil liberties, particularly the right to free speech, compared with many other democracies. While other nations often balance individual rights against considerations such as public order, human dignity, or social harmony—for example, Germany prohibits Nazi propaganda—the U.S. approach largely rejects such restrictions. This model rests … Read more
China’s state-led capitalism follows a unique trajectory that differs from the conventional Western notion of modernization, particularly the framework associated with the “Washington Consensus.” While the Western model emphasizes market liberalization and limited government involvement, China’s approach adopts a hybrid system that combines market forces with proactive state direction. This model allows China to harness … Read more
Apple cancelled its decade-long effort to build an electric car in 2024, ending years of speculation without ever bringing a vehicle to market. In contrast, Chinese companies such as Xiaomi—already a major player in consumer electronics, software, and online services—are not only producing electric vehicles(EV) but selling them at scale. This contrast underscores a broader … Read more
China’s vast STEM and vocational talent, strong industrial policy, and AI-driven manufacturing give it a major edge over the U.S., which faces talent, infrastructure, and coordination gaps. Talent Pool Size and Focus China produces about 3.5 million STEM graduates annually—roughly equal to the total number of graduates across all disciplines in the United States. This … Read more
This ideological shift replaced the industrial-era maxim “What’s good for GM is good for America” with the credo “What’s good for Wall Street is good for America.” In the context of this transition, the hollowing out of the real economy raises a critical question: how could the U.S. over-financialize while still needing a strong industrial … Read more
U.S. policy circles in the 1980s and 1990s did not widely anticipate China as a peer competitor in the 2020s, at least not in the sense of a strategic rival matching U.S. technological and economic power. Context in the 1980s/1990s In the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. strategic attention was heavily focused on the Cold War … Read more
Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, embodied Milton Friedman’s doctrine of shareholder primacy, translating it into corporate practice. Yet, Welch was only one among many. The transformation from an industrial-based to a financialized U.S. economy was driven by a broader ensemble of influential actors across business, policymaking, and academia. Intellectual / Ideological Architects … Read more