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Comment by philwelch | Hacker News Reader

The entire Chinese economy has to do with government interference. The scales are absolutely tipped in favor of Chinese companies.

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I wouldn't think that is a bad thing per se. Countries who can consume and produce within themselves are going to succeed more than those who primarily import / export. If I were the Chines government I'd want to keep Amazon out as well.

>Countries who can consume and produce within themselves are going to succeed more than those who primarily import / export

Citation heavily needed for that claim.

Take the natural experiment of the Korean peninsula. Who would prefer to live in the (relatively) free-trading, cosmopolitan hellhole of South Korea when they could live in the utopian autarky of North Korea?

He wasn't arguing for autarky, but having an industrial base.

> Countries who can consume and produce within themselves are going to succeed more than those who primarily import / export.

What? This runs counter to basically all of human history and the rise of open/free trade. People should produce what they are best at and trade accordingly, which optimizes workflow for all market participants. Central planning of economies works exceptionally inefficiently and leads to imbalanced products available. Just ask the USSR and the availability of food.

Sadly. You can shout to try to win the arguments here. But it don't matter.

Nobody is shouting or being required to shout. What is lacking is simply evidence on how Amazon was actually "suppressed" by the gov. Without concrete evidence the comments are just echoing blanket anti-chinese propaganda without acknowledging the possibility that some Chinese companies could be simply more agile, innovative and adoptive to this market.

One wonders who the dominant player will be in India, or Africa.

Given India's protectionist stance towards foreign companies, I'm going to guess not Amazon or Walmart.

Companies like Harley-Davidson, Ford, GM, McDonalds, Dominos are running fine in India because they have plenty of local competition and create local jobs.

Walmart, Amazon are seeing resistance because they could potentially put thousand of small business owners out of work.

Boeing, Intel, Corning are doing great business in India because there are no local alternatives. I've even seen automotive lifts for auto repair shops with Made in USA in red-white-blue decals at local repair shops.

Companies like Visa and Mastercard will see protectionist moves by the government as India goes digital 'cause there is no reason for a foreign duopoly to corner the huge market in India.

I was referring specifically to ecommerce players, in the context of the recent protectionist laws enacted by India in that area. And it is more than just protecting small business out of work since the laws specifically target foreign investment.

They are the only two players now (for all practical purpose)

Amazon is already the dominant player in India.

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