Keyu Jin

Again, coming back to the big misunderstanding of China, it's not as if one leader decides that that's what we're going to do and then everybody follows order and does that.

No.

There are tons of political barriers, tons of incentive compatibility problems at the local level.

In the end, you need the local provincial governors, the mayors to do the job.

And how many prefectures are there in China?

Right.

A lot.

And they have their own interests, right?

We know this around the world.

Politically, it's the most difficult thing to do.

But somehow, Deng Xiaoping was able to break tradition, break convention, come up with this completely new way of thinking about society, life, and the economy.

And it was so transformative.

I remember people of that generation saying,

told me one time that society was going to focus on the economy.

Really?

Why would they do that?

Wasn't it politics?

Wasn't it everything about politics and struggle and ideology?

So for them, that the whole country and the government is going to focus on the economy was just so...

shocking, even though we take it for granted now, that shows you that breaking that mold was incredibly difficult.