China’s Sovereign Path to Industrial Mastery and Control

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China pursued an industrial strategy that emphasized protecting national sovereignty, learning progressively, and implementing changes gradually, in stark contrast to countries that opted for rapid liberalization and consequently lost influence over their industrial development. Sovereignty and Control Over Foreign Capital China has consistently prioritized maintaining national sovereignty in its economic development, in contrast to countries … Read more

Cycles of U.S. Foreign Policy: Allies Becoming Future Rivals

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The U.S. often supports a nation to act as a balance against a perceived threat. As time passes, that nation may grow in economic, military, and political power. Consequently, the assistance meant to protect U.S. interests can end up creating a future rival. Geography and Strategic Inexperience The United States has historically benefited from a … Read more

Why Western Strategy Pivoted from Russia to China in the 1990s

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During the 1990s, Western attention gradually moved from Russia to China. This wasn’t a sudden change, but a slow realignment shaped by the Cold War’s end, the forces of globalization, and the growing recognition that China’s rise would have a much greater global impact than Russia’s waning influence. Immediate Post-Cold War Context The collapse of … Read more

China’s 3G Standard: Catalyst for Global 4G and 5G Leadership

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China’s first homegrown third-generation (3G) wireless telecom standard, TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), marked a strategic shift in the country’s telecommunications landscape. Prior to TD-SCDMA, China relied on foreign standards such as WCDMA from Europe and CDMA2000 from the United States. By developing its own 3G standard, China gained greater control over key … Read more

China’s 3G Standard: A Milestone in Indigenous Innovation

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TD-SCDMA (Time Division–Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) was China’s domestically developed 3G mobile communication standard, created in the early 2000s as part of a national effort to strengthen technological self-reliance and reduce dependence on foreign firms such as Qualcomm, Nokia, and Ericsson. Though it never achieved global dominance, TD-SCDMA represented a pivotal experiment in China’s … Read more

China’s Meritocratic Governance: Beyond the Dictatorship Label

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In Powerful, Different, Equal: Overcoming the Misconceptions and Differences Between China and the US (2019), Peter B. Walker argues that China’s absence of public elections for top officials does not equate to a dictatorship, as is often assumed in the West. Rather, the country functions as a complex meritocratic system, where the authority of leaders … Read more

China’s Strategic Autonomy and Independent Path to Innovation

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By pursuing pluralistic learning and strategic integration, China avoided dependence on foreign technology and developed its own high-tech systems. By the 2010s, this approach had enabled the country to move beyond its role as a low-cost manufacturer, emerging as a front-runner in selected advanced technologies. China’s Path to Technological Independence Through Strategic Innovation China’s technological … Read more

Why the U.S. Misreads China as ‘Communist’, Not Civilization

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In Powerful, Different, Equal: Overcoming the Misconceptions and Differences Between China and the US (2019), Peter B. Walker argues that each country is deeply rooted in its own governance model, making it unrealistic to expect one to adopt the other’s system or worldview. He emphasizes that fostering mutual understanding, rather than enforcing conformity, is essential … Read more

Neoliberalism, Corruption, and the Limits of Market Reforms

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In Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism, Ha-Joon Chang argues that corruption extends beyond individual misconduct to encompass systemic injustice within the global economic order.[1] He contends that this system privileges multinational corporations and financial elites while undermining the developmental autonomy of poorer nations. Moreover, the moral rhetoric … Read more

China’s Rise: Overcoming Stigma Through State-Led Innovation

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China today faces a modern version of the stigmatization once directed at Germany and Japan, epitomized by stereotypes that it merely copies rather than innovates, that its progress is state-driven rather than genuine, and that its culture favors conformity over creativity. Such politically charged narratives serve to delegitimize China’s development model, just as Britain once … Read more