Does China have a relatively free market? My step dad said he went there and said economic freedom was rampant. He said anything could be bought: snakes, prostitutes, etc. The only thing the government didn’t tolerate, he said, was illegal drugs. And of course the people have no political freedom.
A few thoughts anyway.
It’s hard to say in exact terms how free the economy is without something to compare it to, or a specific set of information to look at, but here’s the Heritage Foundation’s “Index of Economic Freedom” which lists Hong Kong as number 1, and PROC as number 132.
It’s hard to say in exact terms how free the economy is without something to compare it to, or a specific set of information to look at, but here’s the Heritage Foundation’s “Index of Economic Freedom” which lists Hong Kong as number 1, and PROC as number 132.
When considering this one must be careful. You need to keep in mind that Hong Kong was, as far as economic and timely concerns go, only annexed to China fairly recently and had quite notable contrast with the rest of China up until that point. China is an odd dog, it is fairly difficult to get an idea of exactly how “free” it is economically. However one thing is clear, it is steadily increasing in its economic freedom as the country develops. Social freedom is another matter entirely…
Its a chaotic market, not a free market.
I strongly recommend the books A Bull in China: Investing Profitably in the World’s Greatest Market and Adventure Capitalist: The Ultimate Road Trip, by my favorite investor Jim Rogers.