I think you are side stepping China's more aggressive approach to dominance in certain technologies. Continuous, significant anti-competitive investments by the China government in SOE controlled solar technology through several 5 year plans provided them world dominance in the solar market. First, they invested in solar chip production but were reliant on importing EU purified silica. Once they reach sufficient capacity in chips and solar panels, the state invested enormous funds in the technology to purify silica in China. More than 10 years ago China had enough solar cell capacity to supply the world while only utilizing about 40% domestically putting China in a position to flood the global market with solar cells at low prices and essentially eliminate competition. Lots of US and EU solar companies went bankrupt. To protect their dominance China even purchased competitive technologies, like thin film solar, and mothballed it reduce disruption to silica based solar cells. This seems to be the same strategy they are following in LI batteries and 5G as they race to dominance in certain core technologies. I'm not sure this level of market planning was characteristic of 18th or 19th century Europe or the US.