Yes, but also political stability and rule of law. It doesn’t have to be “rule of law” in the sense of liberal democracy. But it has to be reasonably fair and predictable for routine business issues. That’s one thing China has focused a lot on that doesn’t get mentioned much. Apart from politically charged topics or pillars of their industrial policy, you actually can get a relatively fair shake from Chinese courts these days.
In fact, "free" markets are downstream of them. Political stability and rule of law are important everywhere, whereas a fetish for free markets is something that's only important in some places.
We rarely get better results from healthcare or education (or infrastructure) from a free market system, and yet those are fundamental ingredients towards most human development (which can, but does not require free markets).
And anyway, what does a free market mean? Do regulations make markets less free or just shape them?
