The China Global South Project published on 21 February 2025 a commentary titled "Beware False Idols: The Pitfalls of Copy-Paste Development Models" by Felix Brender, project associate at LSE Ideas.
The author concluded: "If Western economic prescriptions failed Africa, perhaps China's State-led model is the answer. Hardly. China's rise was predicated on conditions unlikely to be replicated elsewhere: a vast, disciplined labor force, an authoritarian state able to impose sweeping economic reforms, and, crucially, an era in which globalization was expanding, not faltering."