i think part of how they’ve succeeded is they don’t look for fine-grained, precise control. they blunder into industries by declaring them strategic. 1/

ambitious, conformist local government officials and state-owned banks stand-up funds and firms. then they’re at risk of having their conformity second-guessed and getting demoted or defenestrated, so they compete like hell to not be the hindmost. 2/

it’s not “technocracy”. it’s course, kind of dumb, inefficient. but it gets the most important things right, that industry and production are strategic assets that states can’t just concede to markets, and that absent competition business grows fat, foolish, and malevolent. /fin