

With tons of cash, China's buying the world - known
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2009/nov/19/slide-show-1-china-on-buying-spree.htm

======
conover
"...The Asian gaint..."

Anyway, I wonder what China is going to do when they have difficulty
developing a domestic market for all the goods they are producing. Because of
the recession, U.S. consumers are buying less and saving more which has caused
a massive drop in orders from Chinese factories. Couple that with the fact
that while the Chinese middle class has grown, there are still hundreds of
millions of people scratching out a living off the land. Hundreds of thousands
of factory workers without work does not a stable political situation make.

~~~
pragmatic
Yes, what are the peasants going to do as they see the gap widen with the
middle class? Is the time right for a peasant revolt that returns China to
hard line communism?

Not sure but this also reminds me of the early 90's when the Japanese were
"buying the world." Japan's problems pale in comparison to China's.

~~~
felipe
I believe the class struggle that you are suggesting is not so clear-cut here
in China. Most Chinese I know work in the city and have their parents in the
country-side. So, the "middle-class" that we normally talk about is the sons
and daughters, and the "peasants" are their parents. They are not going to
revolt among each other.

Their situation improved hugely from what it was 20 or 30 years ago. They went
through hell during all these decades, so they built up such resilience that I
don't think that they will revolt simply because they cannot get a job right
now.

Also, the Cultural Revolution is still fresh on people's memory (even though
no one talks about it). That was a "class-struggle" revolution (supposedly),
and I don't think they would want to get back to that time, even if the gap
between rich and poor keeps widening.

~~~
conover
I agree that there is almost certainly not going to be some mass revolt but
people are generally unhappy when they don't have jobs (as evidenced by the
current political climate in the U.S.).

My only point is that a significant portion of the economy is based on exports
for which demand has dropped and may never return. Will domestic demand fill
in that gap? From what I've read, that seems unlikely. The government is going
to have to maybe shift their economic strategy to cope with this fact.

------
yumraj
The problem with China, in my mind, are several fold, like any other country
to be fair.

1) Its primary industry is export. Is it really sustainable especially since
other countries in the World may soon provide even cheaper labor and economic
realities may force countries which consume China's products may reduce the
demand.

2) It is artificially controlling its currency. I'm not an economist but how
long can they keep doing this? Can a country really keep this going on for too
long?

3) Its internal problems related to widening economic gap, human rights, and a
communist government are going to get worse when people with new found (or
lacking) economic freedom revolt. When will this happen, probably soon or
maybe never.

Only time will help how it pans out in the future.

