When Will China Rule the World? Maybe Never

[VicBee]

I laugh reading these serious, authoritative articles from the likes of BB and WSJ which project a realist, neutral stand on political economic analysis, which are neither neutral nor realist but as bias as any BLM literature.
China's rapid growth has been an enormous creation of wealth for western nations -corporate and consumer- which used that country to build everything we could think of, and China became immensely wealthy in the process. To me that speaks volumes of the positive value of global trade.
I think what worries our corporate dominant system more than anything is China showing that their centralized planning system is highly efficient and has demonstrated its ability to raise the standard of living of millions of people in China.
I think our powerful corporatists are worried that some elements of China's model will seep in American socio economic discourse. All European nations have a mix of social-economic liberal democracies that try (not always well) to balance social drive agenda and private enterprise stimulus, which in America some used to call communism but the term seems so ridiculous today that the same people now called it socialism.
That shouldn't mean we shouldn't be worried about China. Its military posturing is a direct threat to the nations around the South China sea and Taiwan in particular. Will they risk their achievements to fight a regional war to retake Taiwan? Everything leads me to think that's what they are gearing to, while Xi Jinping is in power. It's almost inevitable in the context of Chinese culture.

 

[JSOP]

I laugh reading these serious, authoritative articles from the likes of BB and WSJ which project a realist, neutral stand on political economic analysis, which are neither neutral nor realist but as bias as any BLM literature.
China's rapid growth has been an enormous creation of wealth for western nations -corporate and consumer- which used that country to build everything we could think of, and China became immensely wealthy in the process. To me that speaks volumes of the positive value of global trade.
I think what worries our corporate dominant system more than anything is China showing that their centralized planning system is highly efficient and has demonstrated its ability to raise the standard of living of millions of people in China.
I think our powerful corporatists are worried that some elements of China's model will seep in American socio economic discourse. All European nations have a mix of social-economic liberal democracies that try (not always well) to balance social drive agenda and private enterprise stimulus, which in America some used to call communism but the term seems so ridiculous today that the same people now called it socialism.
That shouldn't mean we shouldn't be worried about China. Its military posturing is a direct threat to the nations around the South China sea and Taiwan in particular. Will they risk their achievements to fight a regional war to retake Taiwan? Everything leads me to think that's what they are gearing to, while Xi Jinping is in power. It's almost inevitable in the context of Chinese culture.

China's taking of Taiwan is not about history or culture; it's about getting hands on those precious resources that Taiwan has. Taiwan is not the only one that has high Chinese population. Singapore is 90% Chinese. I don't see China wanting to take over Singapore? Both Vietnam and Korea used to be Chinese territories at one point in history. How come China never wanted to retake them?

And quite honestly China's more capitalistic than any capitalist country in the world. So that's not what those US corporatists are worried about. What they are worried about is competitiveness in that China is going to beat them in their own game, to make more money. Corporatists only care about one thing and one thing only: Money.

 

[VicBee]

China's taking of Taiwan is not about history or culture; it's about getting hands on those precious resources that Taiwan has. Taiwan is not the only one that has high Chinese population. Singapore is 90% Chinese. I don't see China wanting to take over Singapore? Both Vietnam and Korea used to be Chinese territories at one point in history. How come China never wanted to retake them?

And quite honestly China's more capitalistic than any capitalist country in the world. So that's not what those US corporatists are worried about. What they are worried about is competitiveness in that China is going to beat them in their own game, to make more money. Corporatists only care about one thing and one thing only: Money.

Taiwan doesn't have many natural resources, although China's takeover of Taiwan would give it much greater control over the South China sea and its riches. Unlike Vietnam or Korea that were under Chinese rule over a thousand years ago, Taiwan's history is closely linked to China, enough for the dictatorship to risk a losing regional war with all of its neighbors and the western world. Taiwan is the US's Cuba.
Singapore is not 90% Chinese but Chinese dominant, although the micro nation takes great care to appear neutral and doing a fine job at it, much like the Swiss.
Chinese are a fundamentally capitalistic culture, highly entrepreneurial, ruthless and hierarchical, in ways we in the western world have evolved from more than a century ago. Their effort and production capacity is phenomenal, while even our most sacred temple of capitalism, the stock market, operates within union hours.
Yes, we are very different people, but that's what makes this world so interesting.

 

[JSOP]

Taiwan doesn't have many natural resources, although China's takeover of Taiwan would give it much greater control over the South China sea and its riches. Unlike Vietnam or Korea that were under Chinese rule over a thousand years ago, Taiwan's history is closely linked to China, enough for the dictatorship to risk a losing regional war with all of its neighbors and the western world. Taiwan is the US's Cuba.
Singapore is not 90% Chinese but Chinese dominant, although the micro nation takes great care to appear neutral and doing a fine job at it, much like the Swiss.
Chinese are a fundamentally capitalistic culture, highly entrepreneurial, ruthless and hierarchical, in ways we in the western world have evolved from more than a century ago. Their effort and production capacity is phenomenal, while even our most sacred temple of capitalism, the stock market, operates within union hours.
Yes, we are very different people, but that's what makes this world so interesting.

Taiwan has all the metals it needs. No more reliance on Australia.

 

[tsznecki]

Taiwan has all the metals it needs. No more reliance on Australia.

https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/d...ential_attachment_3-_trade_imports-taiwan.pdf

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2189949-taiwans-january-ferrous-scrap-imports-rise

If you don't want to your kids to turn out as dumb as @JSOP don't marry a four legged animal.

 

[newwurldmn]

I laugh reading these serious, authoritative articles from the likes of BB and WSJ which project a realist, neutral stand on political economic analysis, which are neither neutral nor realist but as bias as any BLM literature.
China's rapid growth has been an enormous creation of wealth for western nations -corporate and consumer- which used that country to build everything we could think of, and China became immensely wealthy in the process. To me that speaks volumes of the positive value of global trade.
I think what worries our corporate dominant system more than anything is China showing that their centralized planning system is highly efficient and has demonstrated its ability to raise the standard of living of millions of people in China.
I think our powerful corporatists are worried that some elements of China's model will seep in American socio economic discourse. All European nations have a mix of social-economic liberal democracies that try (not always well) to balance social drive agenda and private enterprise stimulus, which in America some used to call communism but the term seems so ridiculous today that the same people now called it socialism.
That shouldn't mean we shouldn't be worried about China. Its military posturing is a direct threat to the nations around the South China sea and Taiwan in particular. Will they risk their achievements to fight a regional war to retake Taiwan? Everything leads me to think that's what they are gearing to, while Xi Jinping is in power. It's almost inevitable in the context of Chinese culture.

While I agree with most of your post, China’s growth came at the expense of 10s of millions of decent paying jobs in America.

China took the middle class from Americans and gave it to their own citizens.

What I don’t understand is how they funded it and continue to fund it. There is enough office space in China to give every man, woman and child a 100sq ft cubicle; many Airports that are the size of JFK but only have a few flights a day.

 

[tsznecki]

Taiwan doesn't have many natural resources, although China's takeover of Taiwan would give it much greater control over the South China sea and its riches.

TSMC. That's what the mainland wants. SMIC can't fab < 6nm. They have been trying to poach Taiwanese talent for the longest time.

Although I don't know what invading Taiwan and destroying the facilities there would move them towards their goal of capturing TSM's tech.

 

[tsznecki]

While I agree with most of your post, China’s growth came at the expense of 10s of millions of decent paying jobs in America.

China took the middle class from Americans and gave it to their own citizens.

What I don’t understand is how they funded it and continue to fund it. There is enough office space in China to give every man, woman and child a 100sq ft cubicle; many Airports that are the size of JFK but only have a few flights a day.

Did China forcibly take America's middle class jobs or did American corps willingly give it to them?

Chicken and egg. Perhaps someone more politically savvy can answer.

 

[VicBee]

Did China forcibly take America's middle class jobs or did American corps willingly give it to them?

Chicken and egg. Perhaps someone more politically savvy can answer.

That what I was going to say. China didn't come begging for the western world to manufacture there. They supplied, we demanded and everyone was happy.
10s of millions of good paying middle-class jobs? You mean union labor manufacturing jobs. The problem with that is US union labor makes 150k a year (including benefits). The Chinese equivalent is 10 to 1 and they work 10 hour days, 6 days a week while we can't get union labor to work 8 hours a shift and companies have to contend with all these non working union staff paid for by the company. It's as simple as that. Actually, not even... take middle management cost at the same union manufacturers. They also are aligned on union pay and the C levels all demand high pay... it's a never winning comparison.
I was in China 20 years ago on a furniture manufacturing project, back when there was still furniture manufacturing in the US southeastern states. These US guys would visit Chinese factories and go home crying. Starting from scratch, the Chinese were building 100k sq factories with the latest German machineries and churning out thousands of units at 10th of US cost. It's a never winning comparison.
But I learned something very valuable.... because of their high volume production requirements, at the time, Chinese could not manufacture my high end products. They did not have the materials, nor the skills necessary. And then I realized the only way to beat the Chinese was to manufacture small to mid volume, high end products. But 20 years ago we didn't know how to do it AND we thought we were the world's best.
So coming back to our labor costs and why we lost the fight, it's not because of China, it's because we were not nimble enough and able to adjust to the new reality. We literally stopped making cars so we could stick to our only know how, the pickup truck.

Don't blame the Chinese.

 

[newwurldmn]

Did China forcibly take America's middle class jobs or did American corps willingly give it to them?

Chicken and egg. Perhaps someone more politically savvy can answer.

the latter, perhaps through short sightedness. But it’s America’s responsibility to get those jobs back.

and as a separate point, a lot of chinas growth has come from getting favorable treatment as a developing nation and from stealing technology through state promoted actions.