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Yet this is precisely the wrong lesson to draw from China (and
Singapore). It’s not because it’s unfree at the top that China is
growing fast, but because, at least in some respects, it is very
free at the bottom. The extraordinary fact is that — economically —
the average Chinese person is more free from government
interference than the average Westerner. As Niall Ferguson has documented, general government total
expenditure is twice as high in the United States and Europe as it
is in China as a per cent of GDP. China ranks higher than America
on the ethics of politicians. It takes far less time and trouble to
build a house or a nuclear power station in China than it does in
Britain.
So long as you don’t cross the Communist Party, China is
laissez-faire on a scale that would make Hayek blush. That’s what
happens when you liberalise a totalitarian regime: if the party was
previously taking all the decisions, then once it steps back
there’s very little else in the way of state bureaucracy.
Source: Matt Ridley, "When Political Tyranny Allows Economic Freedom," therationaloptimist.com, November 13, 2013
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