Entrepreneurial Shanghai?!?

Here is Tom Friedman in yesterday’s NYT:

There are actually two Chinese economies today. There is the Communist Party and its affiliates; let’s call them Command China. These are the very traditional state-owned enterprises.

Alongside them, there is a second China, largely concentrated in coastal cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong. This is a highly entrepreneurial sector that has developed sophisticated techniques to generate and participate in diverse, high-value flows of business knowledge. I call that Network China.

And here is China expert Yasheng Huang:

Today, Shanghai cannot claim any large-scale, well-known private-sector businesses. In addition, the city is at the bottom of the country in terms of entrepreneurial measures.


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7 Responses to “Entrepreneurial Shanghai?!?”

  1. Gravatar of q q
    20. January 2010 at 06:28

    it’s been clear for years that the columnist named tom friedman does not know much about which he speaks.

    i much prefer the artist tom friedman. http://www.designboom.com/portrait/friedman.html

  2. Gravatar of greg greg
    20. January 2010 at 07:43

    The most entrepreneurial provinces in China are Zhejiang and Guangdong (not coincidentally these provinces also have had few large state-owned enterprises). In general, the coastal provinces are more entrepreneurial than the interior provinces.

  3. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    20. January 2010 at 08:25

    q, But you have to admit that he shows a lot of self-confidence. 🙂

    greg, Yes, that’s right. Zhejiang’s government has been the most accepting of private entrepreneurs.

  4. Gravatar of ca ca
    20. January 2010 at 11:50

    Ive always appreciated Tom Friedman as a Middle East geo-political analyst, but his economics writing has always been suspect.

  5. Gravatar of TGGP TGGP
    20. January 2010 at 16:28

    Both his geo-politics and economics have long been weak. I’m not a fan of Matt Taibbi, but his “Flathead” has all that needs to be said. On the other hand, Tom does have a grand total of one good column to his credit.

  6. Gravatar of ssumner ssumner
    20. January 2010 at 18:38

    ca and TGGP, An economist once did a very good critique of “The World is Flat” but I can’t recall who.

  7. Gravatar of happyjuggler0 happyjuggler0
    21. January 2010 at 19:17

    TGGP,

    That Flathead link is priceless. Thank you very much.

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