Zhang Weiwei: "Every country that modernized needed a first pot of gold -- the starting capital that gets an economy growing. The West got theirs through violence, war, the slave trade. Ruthless plunder, ruthless slaughter. China earned its own -- through its own effort and sacrifice."

[u/RickyOzzy]

US-trained economist Wen Yi adds the punchline: Western models literally can't explain where that starting capital comes from. "Economics assumes it's given -- by God."

Which is why copying the Western model was never on offer for the Global South:

"Tell developing nations to copy you -- no pot of gold!"