Issue 5, 2025  

The Industrial Breakthrough of the Global South

Contents

▍Editor’s Notes 

Innovation of Development Theory and the Construction of the “New Developmentism” Ideology

▍Beyond the Borders

Guns or Butter, How Will Trump Choose?                    Liu Luxin

Speech at the Symposium of the 30th Anniversary of the Association for Promotion of West China Research and Development           Mi Liang
▍Cover Story: The Industrial Breakthrough of the Global South

Reviving “African Ambition”: How China is Promoting Africa’s  Industrialization                      Huang Qixuan

This paper examines how Chinese state capital and comprehensive manufacturing capabilities—conceptualized as “external state capacity”—have facilitated Africa’s reindustrialization. Historically constrained by insufficient state capacity, many African states have faced significant challenges in advancing their industrialization. Through targeted investments in infrastructure, public security, complementary supply chains, and skill development, China has actively supported Africa’s industrial transformation. In contrast to reforms guided by neoliberalism that undermined state capacity and hindered industrial progress, Chinese engagement has contributed to industrial diversification, technological upgrading, and sustainable growth in Africa. By providing external state capacity, China has helped mitigate Africa’s marginalization in the global economy and opened pathways toward sustained economic prosperity.

“Made by the Silk Road”: The Path for Chinese Enterprises to Expand into Vietnam              Feng Chao

Chinese overseas companies are increasingly constrained by external risks such as technological blockades, rising trade protectionism, and the weaponization of tariff, all of which are accelerating the relocation of industrial capacity. Without effective countermeasures, the reorganization of value chains across different regions will face even greater challenges. In 2024, Vietnam proclaimed a “Vietnamese new era of national ascent,” which called for deeper integration into global and regional strategies. This converging political and business environment not only dovetails with the Silk Road industrial-cluster theory led by Chinese enterprises, but also provides a real-world testbed for a new concept of “Silk Road Manufacturing.”

China’s Dual Role in Pakistan’s Power Supply          Li Xiang

Pakistan is grappling with a severe electricity crisis, characterized by an electricity access rate of only 73% and a reliable supply covering just 40% of demand. This shortage adversely affects daily life, economic growth, and national cohesion. China plays a dual role in addressing these challenges: through enterprises such as Three Gorges, it supports the construction of hydropower, coal-fired, and nuclear power plants to enhance Pakistan’s national grid capacity. However, the development of transmission infrastructure is constrained by insufficient industrial demand. Simultaneously, Chinese photovoltaic products are reducing barriers to electricity access for residential users, displacing diesel generators and offering a cleaner alternative. These efforts contribute to Pakistan’s state-building processes and have the potential to facilitate deeper China-Pakistan cooperation within the internet and eco-friendly technology sectors.

“Teach a Man to Fish”: How International Development Projects Achieve Sustainability           Guo Xianju, Yan Jun, and Liu Yuzhao

▍Focus

The Global Impact of China's Rise—Why the "Overcapacity Theory" is Wrong           LuDi

▍The Wealth of Nations

New Energy Vehicles After Infancy: Industrial Policy in Urgent Need of Upgrading                   Gao Bai

The Chinese government has shifted its attention from supporting innovation to opposing involution in the EV industry, which shows that when infant industry gets mature, the state changes its focus from international competition to domestic governance, so as to protect the interests of consumers and medium-small companies in the supply chain, and define clear rules of the game in market competition. However, this does not mean that industrial policy is no longer needed, but suggests an upgraded version of industrial policies to break the monopoly of automakers in after-sales service, accelerate the production concentration process, encourage less competitive automakers to become production-service providers, and promote the production of family unit of the solar-storage battery-charger system to support Chinese EVs’ exports. 

How to Achieve Sustainability? — Productization-Driven Corporate Social Value Innovation                  Guo Nianshun, Gu Haizhi

▍Observation·Society 

Forty-Seven Trees — An Alternative Vision for Modernization                 Sun Ge

No Script, But Direction — Wang Jun’s Improvising Without a Script           Zhao Dingxin

▍The Global South

The Reconstruction of AI Ethics Should Not Overlook the Global South          Jing Jun & Tang Yongyan

The imperative for countries in the Global South to actively shape the ethical principles and standards of AI has reached a critical juncture. Ensuring equitable benefits from AI is an essential step toward inclusiveness and the advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Yet prevailing frameworks—largely shaped by Euro-American contexts—often overlook the structural inequalities and local realities of the South. Drawing on cases from healthcare, recruitment, and language recognition, this paper shows how AI can reproduce social bias when transplanted without contextual adaptation. Ethical AI frameworks emerging from the Global South—particularly those informed by China’s principle of inclusiveness—hold the promise of fostering deeper South-South cooperation and redefining the ethical foundations of global AI governance.

▍Observation · Culture 

Stand-up Comedy in China: The Intergenerational Transformation in the Art of Linguistic Humor                 Qu Jian

Over the past decade, stand-up comedy—an art form of linguistic humor introduced from abroad—has gained increasing popularity in China, largely propelled by the explosive success of online shows devoted to the genre. How should this phenomenon be understood? What distinctions or connections can be drawn between stand-up comedy in China and the traditional Chinese linguistic humor art form of xiangsheng, or “crosstalk”? By addressing these two questions, this article interprets the rise of stand-up comedy as an intergenerational transformation within China’s linguistic humor arts, whose developmental trajectory can be meaningfully examined with reference to that of xiangsheng, while also incorporating new elements shaped by contemporary times.

Reviving the “Living Epic of Clothing”                 Hou Ruoyi

The Plight of “Small-Town Exam Test Takers”           Lu Siwei

▍Academic Commentary

Harvard’s Last Marxist Economist — Revue de la régulation  Interviews William Lazonick     Feng Kaidong et al. (trans. & ed.)