This misses the point that the land still costs about the same it's just that the cost is swallowed by the government, not the factory-owner. That is, the gover

This misses the point that the land still costs about the same it's just that the cost is swallowed by the government, not the factory-owner. That is, the government assumes the opportunity cost of not selling to some other individual. It's basically saying that China's competitive because they have a nice system of government subsidies. It would be the same as if the government gave each company the face-value of the land. This might explain why individual businesses have an easy time getting up and running, but it can't alone explain China's success, except on the more complicated level of how subsidies are good, which isn't really addressed.