China s economic success is in spite of the state | Washington Examiner

Weiying Zhang, a professor of economics at Peking University, objects to the notion that China s extraordinary economic success is a result of the strong influence exerted by the state.

This misinterpretation is common in the West, but it is also increasingly prevalent in China, where some politicians and academics believe that the explanation for the country s success lies in a particular Chinese model. “The advocates of the China model are wrong because they mistake ‘in spite of’ as ‘because of.’ China has grown fast not because of, but in spite of unlimited government and the large inefficient state sector,” he explains in his paper. “The China model view is factually false.”

In fact, “marketization” and “privatization” are the driving forces behind China s tremendous economic growth. Zhang analyzed data from different regions in China and concluded that “the more the market-oriented reform a province had done, the higher economic growth it had achieved, and laggards in marketization reform are also laggards in economic growth.” The regions in which the most consistent market-oriented reforms had been implemented (i.e., Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Jiangsu) are also the ones that had experienced the greatest economic growth.

via www.washingtonexaminer.com

I hope Prof. Zhang has tenure.