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China has actually slowed down drastically over the past few years. They shot to middle class and are now facing middle class problems - unemployment, overprice
by muzani 1y ago
China has actually slowed down drastically over the past few years. They shot to middle class and are now facing middle class problems - unemployment, overpriced housing, low fertility rates, insane traffic, social welfare, etc.
The trade war since 2018 does impact their livelihood. But I think most impressions of China are just well outdated; they've been ahead of the curve for years now. Funny enough, a Google search on how China is doing will pop up what Americans think of China, despite me being geographically closer to China than USA.
If anything, there will probably be a lot of social reforms in the next 50 years or so because the political censorship is starting to crack. They'll need to loosen it to have control, ironically. We'll probably see it evolve to something similar to Western style surveillance and censorship, e.g. FBI kind of stuff.
- nine_zeros 1y agoLots of problems in China. But if I were a betting person, I would bet they'll fix their problems far better than America because of 3 reasons 1. They care about citizens more than billionaires 2. They are not obsessed with partisan and religious takeover 3. They don't have a narcissistic tyrant driving the country down. This can all change if they get their own narcissistic tyrant someday - and they have a poorer political system to deal with tyrants. But that's only in comparison to historical America. Trumpistan America might be comparable in political weakness to communist China.
- jf22 1y agoA few years ago a I read an interesting quote by a Chinese official and how confident they are they'll surpass the US. It was something like, "the US spent trillions on wars in the middle east, we spent trillions investing in our country"
- nine_zeros 1y ago> It was something like, "the US spent trillions on wars in the middle east, we spent trillions investing in our country" This is no longer true - because the US now spends trillions on internal domestic wars to run a mass prison system - all while China keeps investing in development of the country.
- muzani 1y agoIt's also interesting to see the sheer level of infrastructure they've built. IMHO their highways are more of a wonder than the Great Wall of China. Chongqing is particularly amusing with what's possibly the longest escalator in the world: https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/1culpmy/the_deepest_subway_station_in_china/ https://www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/1culpmy/the_deepe...
- firefax 1y ago>They don't have a narcissistic tyrant driving the country down. Try posting a picture of Winnie the Pooh on one of their social networks then get back to me. I had a Chinese coworker who confided he'd like to make $$$ in the US then maybe go back to be a professor after his post doc ended. Next time I saw him all he would say is "China has changed". Apparently it's a dog whistle for all the things people used to say openly, at least when over here.
- nine_zeros 1y agoWinnie the Pooh isn't tweeting racist AI memes of colored people - aka - they are authoritarian but not tyrants stoking hate among their own populace. I am not saying China is better. I am saying that they are not regressing as a society. America is actively regressing back to pre civil rights racist, anti-education, anti-health era.
- firefax 1y ago>Winnie the Pooh isn't tweeting racist AI memes of colored people Too busy putting folks in literal concentration camps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_internment_camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_internment_camps
- nine_zeros 1y agoAnd Trump is putting people in concentration camps AND riling p[eople up with hateful rhetoric. By almost all measures, Trump is worse than Xi. The only reason Trump's rhetoric is pared down is because of the American system - which republicans hate and are trying to skirt with executive orders.