Dhaka, Nov. 28 -- A decade ago, China's government unveiled Made in China 2025 - a bold vision for transforming the country from the world's assembly line into a global innovation leader. The plan was met with considerable skepticism, particularly in the West, where a robust scholarly consensus held that authoritarianism was fundamentally incompatible with innovation. Furthermore, with a shaky technological base, middling universities, and a shortage of high-skilled talent, China was light-years behind the global frontier. Barring drastic political change, many observers concluded, China would remain a "copycat nation."

We know how that prediction turned out. But the misguided belief that innovation depends on political freedom appeared ...