Yes, local autonomy facilitated bold productivity-enhancing activities, such as the use of rural land for industry and commerce and the creation of public-private partnerships to finance major infrastructure projects; private enterprises were thus able to seize market share from SOEs in the service and manufacturing sectors. But cities’ hasty efforts to imitate one another’s growth models also led to overwhelming environmental pollution, mounting debt, excess infrastructure capacity, rising inequality, depletion of farmland, and rampant corruption, including administrative abuses that encroached on citizens’ property rights.