> We should also ask in both cases "prosperity for whom" and "at what cost" Prosperity for Chinese people? The stats and anecdotes are both fairly unambiguous.

> We should also ask in both cases "prosperity for whom" and "at what cost" Prosperity for Chinese people? The stats and anecdotes are both fairly unambiguous. Chinese policy just catapulted ~800 million people out of extreme poverty. Some of my friends just got back from Ancestors' Day and were talking about how their grandfather's village had plumbing now. Shenzhen went from fishing nets to microchips in about a generation, and TSMC is only a little less than 40 years old. These people are wealth creators in the most respectable sense; the fruit of their work is spread extremely wide. And I'm not sure exactly what we'd call the cost as being but I'm glad they paid it. I think extreme poverty is a bad thing and we'll be doing well to see the back of it. If they can do it more cheaply in Africa and India then that would be good, but the important thing is that it happens ASAP.