"Ever wonder how China was able to emerge from decades of regressive economic and industrial policies in a short span of time? International investors were willing to pour capital into post-Mao China because there was a strong central government presiding over an orderly society in which cheap labor was plentiful. "

Whaaaaaa?

No, no.

'Foreign Investment' was not the reason China did well in the 1980's forward.

In fact, China is still kind of a sketchy 'investment' as there is no transparency in accounting, you do not have effectively the 'rule of commercial law' because senior gov. officials are corrupt etc..

You have the opposite: companies invest heavily, and suddenly find themselves trapped in a bureaucratic dead end, while a government-backed competitor leapfrogs them.

China was able to redevelop in the 1980's because they chose to end the decades of Maoist Communist / Centrally Planned insanity.

The colonial interventions, and post revolution years are seen as a 'blip' in Chinese history wherein they were held back.

What see now in China is simply a 'return to the norm'. Not really a new development.

"Rule of law and enforced property rights are everything. Absolutely everything."

They are critical, I agree but they are not quite everything.

As for the article, I might tend to agree with their points - we can do much better than dump money into dysfunctional systems where the money only amplifies the dysfunction.