Sachs' ideas were applied to the post-communist states in their transition to capitalist systems with very mixed results. Some countries that used shock therapy (e.g., Poland, Czech Republic) did better than those that did not. To further cloud understanding, China made its highly successful transition in a gradualist fashion. An opinion is that successful market economies rest on a framework of law, regulation, and established practice[4 that cannot be instantaneously created in a society that was formerly authoritarian, heavily centralised and subject to state ownership of assets.