China is doing an excellent job of balancing growth and freedom – in this case freedom for ‘pursuit of happiness’ by moving to urban areas. As these graphics illustrate, China is moving large chunks of rural population into its 669+ million people cities (US has 12 such cities) in an orderly fashion while the disparity of income grows. Chinese citizens are willing to cede control to the single-party government, trading stability for individual freedom.
This is similar to what Apple is doing with its customer base, across national borders. People give up their choices for what they believe is better experience and stability. After years of watching Wintel machines battle viruses, spyware, blue-screens-of-death, mind-boggling choices and illusion of choice while Windows controls 90% market, people looked to Apple as the savior.
I know, comparing Steve Jobs with Hu Jintao is a stretch, but from the strategic point of view both see the vertical integration model as a better alternative for the consumer than the free-for-all alternative pushed by the competition. Talk about dissidents, censorship and floating yuan reminds me of the iphone jailbreakers, App store and closed ecosystem of Apple world. But you have to agree that both are beating their competition with their benevolent dictatorship approach to world domination.
Strategy, Marketing, Orthogonal thinking, Newton's law 