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Why put the future of your livelihood on the whims of those weird foreigners, when you can supply the much larger local markets and have a better idea what loca
by simonblack 6y ago
Why put the future of your livelihood on the whims of those weird foreigners, when you can supply the much larger local markets and have a better idea what local long-term demand will be like?
The whole of the West (5 eyes plus Europe) is a smaller market than just China.
I know which market I'd be choosing if I was Chinese.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoLeaving the current situation aside, it has long been the view of many economists that the Chinese economy was imbalanced and too export-oriented, and that the next step of its development ought to be to develop domestic consumption. Like you say, that also has the nice benefit of potentially providing a huge cushion for Chinese companies, and that's already somewhat the case. Cynically I'd say that's also partly why the US is trying to cut Huawei's supply chain: Banning them from the US will not hurt them that much, but cutting off their supply chain will.
- simonblack 6y agoMany Americans say "Who will buy from the Chinese if the US doesn't? We have them over a barrel." That's a fallacy. The whole of the foreign export market is only about 20% of the Chinese economy. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS?locations=CN https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.EXP.GNFS.ZS?location... The US only makes up about 20% of those exports. So, in fact, the US purchases make up merely (20% of 20%) or roughly 4% of the Chinese economy. China could easily lose all of that without damage. Its GDP generally grows 4-6% per year. It might be slightly painful, but other growth in the economy would replace those losses within roughly 12-18 months.