Or that capitalism was an inextricable part of democracy, and bringing the former would inevitably lead to the latter.
A quite foolish assumption given the 20th century counterexamples of capitalism + authoritarianism - Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan.
In the 90s, Wall St. and corporate America bankrolled the largest ever lobbying campaign to open US markets and the WTO to China, and got it by 2000.
Just two decades later and the result is massive inequality, a decimated middle class, vulnerable supply supply chains, and rising authoritarianism again.
The US has stupidly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the Cold War.
> that capitalism was an inextricable part of democracy, and bringing the former would inevitably lead to the latter
This was never argued by anyone of prominence in the debates on China's WTO accession. Raising living standards through trade was the pitch. The faulty assumption was wealthier Chinese would demand more freedom. That didn't happen.
The implication at the time - the "End of History" era - was that free trade capitalism had prevailed and was the way to raise living standards, and that political liberalization would follow. However you slice it, it was a poor assumption.
Regarding Nazi Germany, let's say, it's complicated. While it's true that Hitler apparently envisioned a corporate society in "Mein Kampf", in actuality, the industry was much more structured capitalist than anything else, even in WWII. Thus, corporatist tendencies merely controlled the labor force and bound the intellectual class and educational system to the state, rather than actually defining the economic system. (This is also true for Austria, which was an explicitly corporate state in the 1930s before the Anschluss.)
Edit: As far as economic theories of the "Third Reich" are concerned, there was (quite naturally) a fascination with Fordism.
Fascism is not a capitalist economic model. It is a "third way" socioeconomic system that proposes an alternative to both capitalism and socialism where both capital and labor are regulated by an all-powerful stern father figure Leader, who mediates and subordinates their petty squabbling to nationalistic interests.
A quite foolish assumption given the 20th century counterexamples of capitalism + authoritarianism - Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan.
In the 90s, Wall St. and corporate America bankrolled the largest ever lobbying campaign to open US markets and the WTO to China, and got it by 2000.
Just two decades later and the result is massive inequality, a decimated middle class, vulnerable supply supply chains, and rising authoritarianism again.
The US has stupidly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the Cold War.