This article is missing the key part where China blocked and limited products by major foreign tech giants such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft et al so homegrown Chinese variants could flourish.
It seems that all major ladders to the top have some dark rungs the victors are happy to hide when they reach the top.
Only third and fourth tier players (like what the European countries have become now) let others control such key infrastructure.
There is no foreign competition but Chinese companies still have competition from other Chinese companies.
Even if the Chinese market is less efficient because competition is limited to China: The goal is to foster a healthy national economy, create knowledge, and most importantly keep total control over technologies and communication channels.
Competition can still happen just locally and while competition is good when the scale is unbalanced it can be just as bad or worse than no competition at all.
Almost no one is developing a Google search competitor because it’s near impossible to do so while people have access to Google the need isn’t there and you can’t compete unless you are actually better there isn’t as much niche to search as people think. You also have the problem of resource imbalance where Google can just go and buy out the local competition at ease due to their wealth this what has happened with dating and P2P commerce sites all over the world.
The corollary being that, if you are already a developed country, and you want to avoid competition, a good way to do it would be to force, other countries, to "open they markets".
A good book about the subject: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/187808.Kicking_Away_the_...
(1) Econ 101 classes mostly sell students an idealized version of economy.
(2) Top-tier countries have used all kinds of techniques (protectionism, tariffs, etc) to get successful, but now that they don't need those anymore, they pay lip service to the Econ 101 "laws" that are against those same techniques.
(3) While clothed in scientific parlance, a lot of what is Econ 101 is just BS to promote the interests of those in power, not what's best for the people in general (that's how an ecomomics professor gets grants, becomes policy advisor, etc).
The scientific part is just using some math while still basing their ideas on idealized unworkable models and unprovable assumptions.
That said, even if all the above was not true, the internal market in China is 1.6 billion people. 4-5 times the US is more than enough to have lots of internal competition.
Heck, there are US-only brands the rest of the world doesn't care at all about -- and that's on a 350 million people market, and they still do just fine.
The scientific part is just using some math while still basing their ideas on idealized unworkable models and unprovable assumptions.
Or even that you can have a fine quality product at a good price even without competition at all -- e.g. produced by a single vendor, as long as the vendor is so inclined.
fine quality product at a good price even without competition at all
mis-configured regulation
And no I gave a specific example with software patents so even if the US is big enough it can benefits from outside products
Also, there are things that foreign companies simply will not concede to Beijing. Tencent allows full access to their networks to the government. Ephemeral criticisms of the government can get you a warning from the state. This is unconscionable behavior in a lot of other countries, but it's a concession Chinese companies have made time and again.
Are there any sources where I can read more? I know Google fought a lot over similar issues and eventually withdrew their hardware from China.
Also, the Chinese are building a citizen scoring card system, that will rate your standing with the government from birth to death.
Maybe vaping/e-cigarette technology too.
> BIS Research estimates that the global electronic cigarette industry will exhibit a growth of over 22.36% (CAGR) from 2015 to 2025, to reach a total market value of $50 Billion by 2025
https://bisresearch.com/industry-report/electronic-cigarette...