历史上，日本常被自由主义阵营视为成功的典范：它采纳自由市场，削减贸易壁垒，融入全球经济，并在不到半个世纪的时间里跃升为世界上最大的经济体之一。中国近年来的崛起也常被人们以类似的故事加以描述。然而，现实却与此大不相同。

Japan historically is advocated as a success story by the liberal movement, who adopted free markets, reduced trade barriers and entered the global economy and has in less than half a century become one of the largest economies in the world. Similar tales are also made about China’s recent rise to fame. However, the reality is very much different.

日本的发展历程源自与自由主义和全球化完全相反的政策。日本政府要求重点产业加快发展，并保护它们免受外国竞争的冲击。政府保留了外汇分配的权力，由此得以限制外资流入、管理日本企业获取外国技术的过程，并影响对外贸易的构成。日本进出口银行和日本开发银行得以设立，成为向政府重点扶持产业扩大资金流动的主要渠道。

Japan’s development has evolved from policies which are the complete opposite to liberalism and globalisation. The Japanese government required key sectors to develop and protected them from foreign competition. The government retained the right to allocate foreign exchange, and by this it was able to restrict inward investment, manage the acquisition of foreign technology by Japanese firms and to influence the composition of foreign trade. The export bank of Japan and Japan development bank were setup to become the main vehicles for expanding the flow of finance to government targeted industries.

日本发展的核心在于通商产业省（MITI）的作用，它是一个省级部门。这一中央政府部门负责调控商品和服务的生产与分配。它制定有关日本产业结构的规划，控制日本的对外贸易，确保国民经济中商品的顺畅流通，促进制造业、采矿业和流通业的发展，并监督可靠的原材料和能源供应的采购。因此，日本的发展是由中央主导推动的，而非通过自由市场实现的。

Central to the development of Japan was the role of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) which was a ministerial department. This central government department regulated production and the distribution of goods and services. It developed plans concerning the structure of Japanese industry, controlled Japan’s foreign trade, ensured the smooth flow of goods in the national economy, promoted the development of manufacturing, mining, and distribution industries; and supervised the procurement of a reliable supply of raw materials and energy resources. Hence Japanese development was centrally driven and not through the free market.

中国在全球事务中的做法，已经从过去数十年狭隘、被动、反应式的方式中演进出来。中国正在摒弃长期以来"百余年屈辱"的受害者心态，转而确立大国心态（大国心态）。与此相应的自然延伸，是中国在全球事务中的作用日益增强。随着受害者心态被摒弃、大国心态被确立，中国越来越把自己视为与世界主要大国相近的角色。这标志着与上世纪九十年代相比的转变：中国现在公开谈论分担全球责任的必要性，这也是中国战略家观察世界的视角。

China has evolved from its decades of long, narrow and reactive approach to global affairs. China is abandoning its long-held victim mentality of 150 years of shame and humiliation and adopting instead a great power mentality (daguo xintai). The natural extension of this is the increasing role of China in global affairs. With the abandoning of the victim mentality and the adoption of a great power mentality, China is increasingly seeing itself more akin to the world’s major powers. This represents a shift from the 1990’s and China is now openly speaking about the need to share global responsibilities and this is the lens through which China’s strategists view the world.

中国给正统经济学专家以及所有认为采纳自由主义价值观就等于经济成功的人提出了一个耐人寻味的难题。首先，中国动摇了这样一种信念：进步只属于自由市场、民主和自由主义价值观这一西方模式；它也表明，世界上仍有大量国家并不相信这一模式。

China represents an interesting conundrum for orthodox economics experts and for all those who believe the adoption of liberal values equals economic success. China firstly undermines the belief that progress is exclusive to the Western formula of free markets, democracy and liberal values and demonstrates how much of the wider world remains unconvinced of such a formula.

中国在没有采纳民主、也没有加入全球化精英阵营的情况下，实现了惊人的经济增长和工业化，而是始终保持着深厚的威权体制。自由主义价值观在中国的经济崛起中几乎没有任何作用。中国国家主席胡锦涛在2004年说：“我们绝不会盲目照搬其他国家的政治制度模式。历史表明，不加区别地照搬西方政治制度，对中国来说是一条死路。”40 这表明中国在可预见的将来几乎不可能采纳自由主义价值观，并且确信自己在没有西方发展模式的情况下也取得了成功。在经济上，中国与日本和德国相似，一直保留并运用着其由中央主导、强调国家干预的做法。中国政府在所有市场领域都有广泛的参与。正是由于由中央主导，中国得以将资源集中投向一个方向，这使其成为地区强国，并成为仅次于美国的世界第二大经济体。

China has managed to achieve phenomenal economic growth and industrialisation by not adopting democracy or joining the globalisation elite but by remaining deeply authoritarian, where liberal values have not featured remotely in China’s economic rise. China’s President Hu Jintao said in 2004: ‘We will never blindly copy the mode of other countries’ political system. History indicates that indiscriminately copying western political systems is a blind alley for China.’40 This shows there is very little likelihood that China will adopt liberal values in the near future and is secure in the knowledge that it has achieved success without the Western model of development. Economically China has utilised and retained its centrally driven and interventionist approach similar to Japan and Germany. China has extensive levels of government involvement across all market sectors. By being centrally driven China has been able to direct its resources in one direction which has propelled it into a regional power and the largest economy in the world after the US.

中国很少获得西方世界的援助，主要是由于其历史上的共产主义背景；同时，它也表明，一种独立的、以国家为先、由中央推动的政策，同样能够取得经济上的成功。

China has received little assistance from the Western world mainly due to its historic communist credentials and has shown that an independent, nation first, centrally driven policy can attain economic success.