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"Yet this process of economic liberalization and structural reform is also uniquely Chinese, insofar as it has emphasized local-level competition and experiment

"Yet this process of economic liberalization and structural reform is also uniquely Chinese, insofar as it has emphasized local-level competition and experimentation, which in turn have supported bottom-up institutional innovation. The result is a kind of de facto fiscal federalism – and a powerful driver of economic transformation." I'm not entirely sure what this means. The article that is referenced by the author is behind a pay-wall, and doesn't explain it in the top paragraphs. How has the Government encouraged this local competition? By all means the examples he gives are all technology companies that have primarily benefited from 1) copying US tech companies strategies, 2) stealing their IP, and 3) not having to substantially compete with US companies because of tech restrictions, the Great Firewall, etc. None of that is economic liberalization in the slightest.

kristianov 7y ago
Regarding Chinese economic liberalization, it's mostly happening in the country and villages. I would recommend you to read Steven Cheung. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_N._S._Cheung#Selected_books_for_general_audiences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_N._S._Cheung#Selected_b...
i_am_proteus 7y ago
Yes, but that IP theft is more often done by local entrepreneurs (moving the factory out from under a foreign company) as it is the state.
adinobro 7y ago
The article does not do a really good job at explaining what the government it doing but basically it is: 1. Creating competition between states/cities (Beijing vs Shanghai) which has similar advantages to the free market EVEN if both groups are part of the government. This tries to reduce waste and puts natural pressure on companies (including ones that are state owned). 2. Encouraging close proximity (like silicon valley) by using grants, lower taxes, etc. This encourages lots of companies in the same industry to be close together and often in the same building. This encourages transfer of ideas and staff between companies. (economic development zones) 3. Limiting the number of economic development zones so that they are not all over the place. To just ignore anything that Chinese companies have done and say it is all stolen or copied is rather biased. Alipay and WeChat are probably the easiest example to look at. They both started very different (WeChat was just a copy of What's App, which is a copy of MSN messenger, which is a copy of AOL messengers, which is a copy of IRC which is a copy of netsend, which is a copy of telegrams, which is a copy of smake signals, etc... - everything is based on what came before it) Slowly based on competition with each other they have stolen each other features and now do basically the same things. Forget about America (Facebook keeps copying features from WeChat). Hope this helps to explain what the article does not explain.
- red_admiral 7y ago
  > To just ignore anything that Chinese companies have done and say it is all stolen or copied is rather biased. Upvote. From talking to Chinese students overseas, it seems to me like Weibo and the like are actually ahead of FB/Twitter in many ways, including a functioning and scalable micropayment system. Sure, government support might be helpful, but you couldn't run anything of that kind and at that scale without some of the best tech people in the world.

kristianov 7y ago

Regarding Chinese economic liberalization, it's mostly happening in the country and villages. I would recommend you to read Steven Cheung. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_N._S._Cheung#Selected_books_for_general_audiences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_N._S._Cheung#Selected_b...

i_am_proteus 7y ago

Yes, but that IP theft is more often done by local entrepreneurs (moving the factory out from under a foreign company) as it is the state.

adinobro 7y ago

The article does not do a really good job at explaining what the government it doing but basically it is: 1. Creating competition between states/cities (Beijing vs Shanghai) which has similar advantages to the free market EVEN if both groups are part of the government. This tries to reduce waste and puts natural pressure on companies (including ones that are state owned). 2. Encouraging close proximity (like silicon valley) by using grants, lower taxes, etc. This encourages lots of companies in the same industry to be close together and often in the same building. This encourages transfer of ideas and staff between companies. (economic development zones) 3. Limiting the number of economic development zones so that they are not all over the place. To just ignore anything that Chinese companies have done and say it is all stolen or copied is rather biased. Alipay and WeChat are probably the easiest example to look at. They both started very different (WeChat was just a copy of What's App, which is a copy of MSN messenger, which is a copy of AOL messengers, which is a copy of IRC which is a copy of netsend, which is a copy of telegrams, which is a copy of smake signals, etc... - everything is based on what came before it) Slowly based on competition with each other they have stolen each other features and now do basically the same things. Forget about America (Facebook keeps copying features from WeChat). Hope this helps to explain what the article does not explain.

red_admiral 7y ago
> To just ignore anything that Chinese companies have done and say it is all stolen or copied is rather biased. Upvote. From talking to Chinese students overseas, it seems to me like Weibo and the like are actually ahead of FB/Twitter in many ways, including a functioning and scalable micropayment system. Sure, government support might be helpful, but you couldn't run anything of that kind and at that scale without some of the best tech people in the world.