The sustainability transition approach intends to conceptualize and manage the substantial shift in production and consumption patterns necessary to achieve sustainable paths of development. This paper suggests that the comparison of sustainability transition with the transition from a planned to a market economy experienced by former socialist economies allows for a better understanding of both transitions. Former socialist countries in Eastern and Central Europe, Russia, Central Asia and China have followed different paths of economic transition with the radical transition path of the former mirroring the impact of shocks at the landscape level, while China’s transition path evolved gradually and based on experiments and niche management. The Chinese example suggests that the interplay for ‘experiments under hierarchy’and ‘adaptive capacity developed through learning may be a crucial aspect of its successful economic transition. Hence the paper argues for a more thorough analysis of this interplay that could sharpen the sustainability approach.