“maybe we could learn from them. If we tried free-market capitalism for twenty years, imagine what this country could do”
well, O.K., but “free-market capitalism” is not the functional or functioning economic model of the Chinese economy;
it is state-Capitalism, whether it be through the principles in a “partnership”, the majority shareholder(s) in the voting shares of a company whose stocks are sold on a Chinese stock exchange, the only allowed members of a board of directors, direct government owned outfit, secretly-government-controlled outfit (like 2/3 of the companies in the travel industry are directly or indirectly controlled by the NPA), and whether or not the state interest is held in some fashion by the state or by state-approved party members, or by party members the state is told to use.
Are there completely “private” companies? Yes. But, from the largest sources of capital investment, the largest sources of bank loans, the lions share of the direction of either, it is the state and a nationalistic state agenda, not “free enterprise” that is the driver.
Agreed. But it’s pretty sad when their state capitalism can out-produce our socialist republic.