I think this is conflating national debt with aggregate debt, which a lot of western reporting has mixed up and for some reason continues to repeat. In 2020, PR

I think this is conflating national debt with aggregate debt, which a lot of western reporting has mixed up and for some reason continues to repeat. In 2020, PRC national debt was ~55% (+20% in 10 years) of GDP vs US was ~140% (+40% in 10 years), total aggregate debt ~270% vs US ~800%. Some 2022 stats suggest US national debt is down to ~120% this year somehow and aggregate down to 780%, which I won't pretend to understand why. With respect to income inequity / wage. Yeah PRC far behind, it's a stratified system by design (rural/coastal divide). If you look at something like quantiles, US quantile means was 10k/25k/42k/66k/142k in 2010, and 15k/40k/68k/110k/254k in 2020 [0]. Everyone doing better, but top 2 quantiles are killing it. PRC is roughly this chart, which ... tells fairly similar story: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DG9cUdeXkAAszMz?format=jpg&name=small https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DG9cUdeXkAAszMz?format=jpg&name=... The TLDR is PRC is still vastly poorer in terms of house hold incomes, but growing rapidly, and like US, top half / top 2 quantiles are getting disproportionate growth, although PRC bottom is growing more relative than US bottom but they're still poor as dirt, even in PPP terms. There was recent study trying to illustrate PRC income disparity increased under Xi, but actual data show something like top 1% got crushed, and a lot of growth was redistributed to top 30-40%. Again, IMO by design, it's more important to build up skilled middle/upper income class of 300-400 million that can compete with west, top 1% can get fucked while bottom 60% get some common prosperity "scraps" to keep the peace. Other caveat is wealth, since PRC has most household savings, locked up in speculative real estate which is hard to compare especially with different social safety nets etc. [0] https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/household-income-quintiles https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/statistics/household-income-... >When I first arrived bicycles dominated the streets of Beijing. Amazing to watch it grow It's nice to hear from the rare 90s expat that saw that phase of BJ growth.