To stop starving its population, China embraced capitalist ideas: leveraging self-interest, creating jobs, and allowing for income inequality. This paradoxical move by a communist regime serves as powerful evidence that capitalism is the most effective tool for pulling masses out of poverty.

In China, mayors and governors are promoted based on their ability to meet national priorities. As AI safety becomes a central government goal, these local leaders are now incentivized to create experimental zones and novel regulatory approaches, driving bottom-up policy innovation that can later be adopted nationally.

Unlike in many countries where corruption derails projects, in China it often functions as an extra cost or "tax." Major infrastructure projects, like the high-speed rail system, are successfully completed even when overseen by corrupt officials, who ensure functionality to keep their illicit revenue streams flowing.

Contrary to perceptions of rigid control, China accelerates tech progress by empowering local regulators to be agile. These regulators create urban "test beds" for technologies like autonomous taxis, which entices talent and investment, turbocharging development cycles far ahead of Western counterparts.

China's immense state capacity allows for rapid infrastructure development but also enables disastrous national policies like the one-child policy or Zero-COVID. Unlike the deliberative U.S. system, China's efficiency means that when it goes off track, it can go catastrophically off track before any course correction is possible.

China's leadership consists primarily of engineers who implement strategic, multi-year plans for infrastructure and technology. This contrasts sharply with the US, where a government of lawyers navigates short-term election cycles, hindering long-term national projects.

China's government designates strategic industries, and provinces subsidize local firms to become national champions. This hyper-competition, while creating overcapacity and unprofitability, forces surviving companies to become technologically superior and globally competitive. The state then helps the winners consolidate and scale.

China's government sets top-down priorities like dominating EVs. This directive then cascades to provinces and prefectures, which act as hundreds of competing, state-backed venture capital funds, allocating capital and talent to achieve the national strategic goal in a decentralized but aligned way.

Contrary to the view of a monolithic state, China's economic strength comes from intense competition between its provinces. This hyper-local market forces companies to become incredibly resilient, and only the strongest, like BYD, survive to dominate globally.