This paper reexamines the factors that have hindered China's development of institutions capable of promoting innovation since the Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BCE). Using a framework centered on social organization and state power, it offers new insights for contemporary debates on innovation-driven development. Despite intense interstate competition and flourishing intellectual movements, Eastern Zhou China did not generate the kind of autonomous social organizations, such as guilds, universities, or capitalist enterprises, that later underpinned Europe's industrial transformation. This study argues that limited long-distance trade, restrictive geography, and early state consolidation constrained the emergence of independent organizations capable of counterbalancing centralized authority. Through comparative historical analysis, it demonstrates that these dynamics anticipate modern challenges: when states dominate organizational life, innovation is valued more for political unity rather than developmental impact. The paper concludes with a key policy implication: fostering sustained innovation requires governments to tolerate and empower countervailing organizational forces.
Zhen Wei (Thu,) studied this question.