This phenomena is much more obvious with physical assets. If you're a country that natural ore, oil, farmland, etc, you will prosper. If you're a country that h

This phenomena is much more obvious with physical assets. If you're a country that natural ore, oil, farmland, etc, you will prosper. If you're a country that has few natural resources and is land-locked, you'll suffer. The idea that you can generate wealth independent of environmental conditions is flawed - there's no such thing as absolute wealth generation. Demand has a price point, and fulfilling that demand has a cost point, and its the environmental conditions that dictate if you'll operate at a profit or loss. Favorable conditions enable you to operate at profit. These conditions can be a number of things, like location, access to capital, labor, competition or lack thereof, etc. Most of the time, these things are not under your control (unless you're a large corporation that can lobby the government, or you are backed by the government). China's government has created conditions for profit by creating favorable environments. Profit allows for innovation, which is where the technical advancement comes from.