Given the silent downvote, I note that I heard it at a talk by a Harvard economic development professor. But it was said as an aside, and I'm unclear on whethe

Given the silent downvote, I note that I heard it at a talk by a Harvard economic development professor. But it was said as an aside, and I'm unclear on whether it was within their own research focus/expertise. And Harvard econ profs don't exactly have a great long-term trackrecord at avoiding nonsense. So speculative, but not news media random noise. Speculative wrt China - the US description should be relatively uncontroversial.