I'm of two minds here.
I think we outside of China hugely underestimate the domestic part of their economy. What they export is important, but internal trade, between Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, to take the three major metro centers, is huge. Then there are all the secondary cities, not including the industrial 'burbs of these three.
Which is why it doesn't surprise me that they're already second in R&D spending.
But they face massive challenges, from the fallout of their one child policy to the biggest one of all: property rights. It's still a dictatorship, and that means everything, all that alleged private property, can be seized at any time for any reason at any time of the day or night the authorities think it's right. Rule of law is still, well, let's be charitable and say it's embryonic.
I'm no fan of India, but it has better rule of law, is a democracy with the respect for property rights that entails, and of course never suffered from a top-down one child policy. Between the two, if I were looking fifty years out, I'd have to say India has the advantage over China because of these considerations.
I think we outside of China hugely underestimate the domestic part of their economy. What they export is important, but internal trade, between Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, to take the three major metro centers, is huge. Then there are all the secondary cities, not including the industrial 'burbs of these three.
Which is why it doesn't surprise me that they're already second in R&D spending.
But they face massive challenges, from the fallout of their one child policy to the biggest one of all: property rights. It's still a dictatorship, and that means everything, all that alleged private property, can be seized at any time for any reason at any time of the day or night the authorities think it's right. Rule of law is still, well, let's be charitable and say it's embryonic.
I'm no fan of India, but it has better rule of law, is a democracy with the respect for property rights that entails, and of course never suffered from a top-down one child policy. Between the two, if I were looking fifty years out, I'd have to say India has the advantage over China because of these considerations.
