This article compares the Chongqing model of the “third hand” with various theories of the “third way” in late socialist Eastern Europe. The third hand is praised as an intriguing attempt to offer an alternative to the invisible hand of the free market and the redistributive hand of state socialism. Funding of public goods from capital gains from government-owned land and real estate is an innovative idea, but it is unclear whether it is a sustainable proposition. China may be developing a real estate bubble similar to the one that has recently burst in the United States and continental Europe. The key question is: can prices of land and real estate grow indefinitely faster than wages?
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