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A former government minister got it right when he likened Chinese state-owned automakers’ joint ventures with foreign companies to “opium.”

Like the addictive drug that makes its users feel happy for a short time but undermines their health in the long run, joint ventures enable state-owned automakers to generate profits but have made them lazy and reluctant to invest in the resources to make their own brands successful.

The former minister used the opium analogy last month at an automotive forum to highlight the financial dependency of China’s state-owned automakers. Perhaps out of discretion, he did not add one unpleasant truth: The state-owned automakers’ addiction to this “opium” has become incurable.

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