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China blends private enterprise with state control over strategic assets
The state allows competition and foreign investment, but keeps direction over strategic assets and steers capital toward infrastructure, technology, jobs and social stability.
A Hong Kong businessman writing for SCMP Economy argues that much of the Western debate about China rests on a category error, treating “communism” as a synonym for a fully command-style economy with no real private enterprise.
The piece says modern China does not match that model, describing it instead as a mixed system where the state does not seek to replace markets, but sets political boundaries while permitting competition and entrepreneurship.
It adds that China retains control over strategic assets and channels capital toward long-term national priorities, including infrastructure, technology, employment and social stability.
The author also contrasts the outcome with earlier Western expectations that market reforms, World Trade Organization membership, and rising prosperity would eventually steer China toward an American-style settlement, saying China followed a different route.