Economist and Beijing-based national coordinator for the UK-China Sustainable Development Dialogue, Leo Horn, attacks the notion that China offers a new model for economic development.
China developed thanks to good luck, not good planning, Horn says.
Development experts and ideologues of all shades are touting the ‘China Development Model’ as incontrovertible evidence in support of their disparate theories of development. And developing country leaders are turning to China in search of solutions to their own developmental quagmires.
But, he writes, China’s reality is ad hoc experimentation and old fashioned good luck.
Pragmatism, adaptive management and clever exploitation of luck define China’s road to success rather than strict adherence to an ideologically-correct ‘model’ of development. The openness of China’s reformers to experimentation and to new ideas is what makes it uniquely exciting and rewarding to be working here!
His full argument (personal, not those of the UK government) is available here.