Chinese Economic Cooperation and Regional Industrial Policy

An oft-used criterion for distinguishing industrialized and later (houfa) industrialized countries is the difference in time that different countries entered the industrialization process. The concept of later industrialized countries is a relative one. Apart from England, the first industrialized country in the world, all currently developed industrialized countries had at some historical stage been later industrialized countries. As the first industrialized nation, English economists first proposed the "free economy" and "free trade" policies. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith pointed out that government intervention in economic affairs must be limited to a minimum so that the "invisible hand" can spontaneously regulate the market economy. In Principles of Political Economy and Finance, David Ricardo suggested the government follow a free trade policy and let the principle of "comparative advantage" spontaneously regulate commodity exchange among countries.