TL;DRThe Western debate about China’s industrial rise fixates on subsidies, but the real driver is commercialisation: the ability to take technology from laboratory to global market faster than any competitor. Government VC funds invested $184 billion in AI firms over two decades, but the resulting companies, BYD, CATL, DeepSeek, succeeded through state-funded domestic competition, not central planning. China’s R&D spending has surpassed America’s, Made in China 2025 hit 86 per cent of its targets, and the 15th Five-Year Plan doubles down on the same model. The question is no longer whether Beijing subsidises its industries. Every major economy does. The…