You don’t have as many regulations in China as the U.S., that is true. Does that mean China does capitalism better? No. It means that if you want to move a village and build a road you can. It is not clear to me that that is capitalism at its most effective or even its most rapacious form. That’s the state doing what it wants to do for the benefit of the state. That’s the problem. You wanna talk about state intervention? We’ve got it in China. Look, the Chinese system is not just capitalistic its state-capitalism, and state-capitalism is a system where the state is the principal actor in the economy. And it uses markets ultimately for their own political gain. If it turns out that profit is useful for their political gain, they’ll go for it. If it turns out it isn’t, they’ll go against it. I mean, Facebook’s doing a pretty good IPO but they’re not in China—why?—because China doesn’t want Facebook in China. It would make a lot of money for China, but that’s not the point.
—Intelligence Squared Podcast. March 20, 2012. “Does China Do Capitalism Better Than America?” National Public Radio.
In the United States you do largely know what your officials are up to. Look, Solyndra was a disaster…but we found out about it. In China, they don’t want to tell you about Solyndra. They don’t have media that’s getting inside the dirty laundry of series Chinese officials…
—Intelligence Squared Podcast. March 20, 2012. “Does China Do Capitalism Better Than America?” National Public Radio.
These are the facts, if you are an entrepreneur in China. You cannot open a private, bank, you cannot get into telecom services…energy…international resources…fourteen other very important sectors because these are the sectors reserved for state-owned companies. You cannot get bank loans. You cannot secure property rights. If you get into a dispute with another entrepreneur, whether you win that dispute does not depend on whether you have a good case. It depends on whether you know the Communist Party secretary in charge of the legal system.
—Intelligence Squared Podcast. March 20, 2012. “Does China Do Capitalism Better Than America?” National Public Radio.