Are Economic Freedom and Political Unfreedom Compatible? A Review of Markets with Chinese Characteristics

I review Evan Osborne’s Markets with Chinese Characteristics: Economic Liberalism in Modern China (2024). Osborne provides an excellent overview of the ups and downs of economic liberalism in Chinese history. In accounting for why liberalism failed to put down firm roots in China, I contend that Osborne could have placed more weight on the value of China to build a modern state in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I also see greater headwinds ahead for liberalism in China.

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