China’s remarkable state-led growth and rapid industrial development continues to beguile and amaze. It has brought plaudits from across the world and has even spawned a new development model – the Beijing Consensus. But away from the headlines there is one industry in which state intervention appears to be having little or no effect. An internationally competitive software services industry centered on large, domestic firms – prioritized by the Chinese Communist Party since 2000 and targeted accordingly – remains elusive. India’s success in the same industry, however, provides several pointers for Chinese policymakers as to how their current software struggle could be overcome.