China's recently concluded Party Plenum took inspiration from ancient philosophers to solve its modernization drive. It is a bold and ambitious move that could change the country and the world. Will it work?

Last week, the 2024 Party Plenum issued its decisions concentrating on the economy. In a nutshell, the plan was to unify the internal market, better protect property rights, improve the fiscal system and clarify responsibilities between central and local administrations.

Then, it called on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to implement decisions proactively and creatively. The Party bets that these changes will help stimulate the economy's sagging performance. Indeed, there is much room for improvement and even a marginal enhancement could give China's massive productive capacity breathing room.

Yet, the Third Plenum was not just about the economy. A few hours earlier, it issued a far more innovative communiqué. China is thinking big – the Communist Party is pushing for a massive organizational drive.

Bureaucracy and the free market pushed modernization in the West in the 17th-18th centuries, changing everything forever. In the 3rd century BC, the Qin state unified the Chinese world "All Under Heaven" with the help of a massively bureaucratized state.

Can China manage that now and can a bureaucratized Chinese state gain the upper hand in today's "Game of Thrones?"

The experience of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proves that Beijing can think and act big; perhaps one should not underestimate the CPC's plan to change China's political and social structure.

Then what can other countries do? In the ancient race for bureaucratization, first large countries gobbled up small countries, and then the Qin state vanquished all the surviving large states.