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A contrast is often drawn between the two rising giants of Asia– democratic India and authoritarian China. Many see the Chinese Communist Party’s monopoly on power as an essential ingredient in sustaining three decades of growth. China’s extraordinary tenfold GDP increase since 1978 is taken as evidence that economic freedom combined with political autocracy is the best recipe for development– especially for a huge, poor country with no history of self-government. But others question the assumption that a democratic China could not have achieved the same economic results. What is beyond dispute is that the boom could not have happened without Deng Xiaoping’s bold leadership– in the late 1970s, and again in the early 1990s; but also, that China’s authoritarian political system of one party rule has profoundly shaped the way in which China achieved wealth and power in the late 20th century.

Autocracy and Economic Freedom Brought Growth

Period: Reckoning

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  • Autocracy and Economic Freedom Brought Growth

    Chen Ping

  • Expectations Are the Most Important Growth Factors

    Michael Anti

  • China is Like a Raft in Category 5 White Water

    James Fallows

  • Entrepreneurship Was a Key to China's Boom

    Victor Yuan

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Meettheexpert

Chen Ping

Executive Chairman of the Board, TideTime Group

Chen Ping is the executive chairman of the board of TideTime Group, a company primarily engaged in education, media & culture, and investment. In September 2004, TideTime Group became the single largest shareholder of Sun Sports Media and renamed the company TideTime Sun in April 2005. 

Mr. Chen is also chairman of the board and CEO of TideTime Sun, which operates broadcasting, publishing, and other media-related businesses. It also holds 30 percent ownership of Sun TV, the first independent broadcaster serving Chinese audiences across Asia.

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These newly resurgent Asian countries were able to develop because of their political autocracy and economic freedom. This undoubtedly applies to China. Because China was a very closed country prior to the reform, China's labor costs and environmental costs were the lowest. Also, compared with South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong, its political centralization was the strongest. In past 30 years of globalization, China's opportunities and growth surpassed that of the Four Tigers because of this combination of low cost and high political centralization.

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“Autocracy and Economic Freedom Brought Growth | Chen Ping | The China Boom Project.”
The China Boom Project.
The Asia Society Center on US-China Relations.
1 June 2010.
Web.
09 May 2025.
<https://chinaboom.asiasociety.org/thread/37>.
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  • Capitalism
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  • Inheritance (Pre-1978)
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  • Mao's Failure, Deng's Success
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