
Anxieties of development: emerging voices in Chinese social media - ironchief
https://chublicopinion.com/2019/02/09/anxieties-of-development-emerging-voices-in-chinese-social-media/
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oblio
> Collectively they depict a picture of a merciless ladder called
> “development” on which nations laboriously climb. At the top of the ladder
> sit countries with the highest per capita GDP, enjoying comfortable
> privileges, while other lower income countries fight to occupy favorable
> positions underneath. “Overall, the white world, Europe+North
> America+Australia/New Zealand+Israel, still makes up the top echelon of
> nations,” writes SN in a post responding to an IMF data release, “when per
> capita GDP goes above 40,000USD, only very few non-white nations can enter
> that area… Japan and a few ethnic Chinese economies, Hong Kong, Macau and
> Singapore managed to achieve that. We should have confidence in ourselves.”

Well, correlation does not imply causation (those countries being "white"
isn't necessarily the reason they're rich). But they're not wrong either. At
this moment only Europe + European off-shoots and Japan/Hong
Kong/Macau/Singapore/South Korea are developed.

The rest of the world is still lagging.

Of course, their racist argument kind of falls flat considering there's also
poor "white" countries :)

~~~
vincentchu
The racial lens also falls apart a bit when you consider the fact that the
most dynamic regions of the American economy are extremely ethnically diverse
(e.g., California, already a majority-minority state).

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westiseast
It’s fascinating to read stuff like this and try meta-analyze the sentiments
behind it.

One huge irony that strikes me is the idea of these ‘middle class bloggers’
raging against Western oppression whilst living lives that are basically
upper-middle class EU/US: high income, property owners, international
holidays, white collar jobs, $1000 smartphones from which they blog about
progressive political issues.

China’s success and rise since the 1980s has been as much about wholesale
adoption of Western business/science/cultural norms as anything else. And yet
bloggers still see China’s situation in us & them terms?

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SCAQTony
The apparent expectation that China will eventually supplant the USA as an
economic power has a long way to go. One obstacle is will democracies want to
settle their trades in the currency of a de facto dictatorship? Ostensibly,
not yet.

According to SWIFT, when looking at domestic and cross-border payments the RMB
share as an international payments currency is 1.61% percent. The activity
share is lower, (0.98%) if looking at cross-border payments only. The Yen is
used almost four times more.

file:///Users/tonyaustin/Downloads/swift_rmb_tracker_special_edition_january2018.pdf

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naringas
> Again using back-of-the-envelope calculations, he asserted in one of his
> posts that 1.4 billion newcomers to the industrialized club would
> “completely change the face of “developed economies”, which currently cover
> just 800-900 million people.

But can the limited resources of the planet accomodate 1,400 million more
people consuming that way?

more than their apparent racism, I am worried about their seeming lack of
environmentalism

~~~
ironchief
Malthus is wrong and "more people" = "lack of environmentalism" is zero-sum
thinking.

Instead consider the positive-sum "We need more people to solve bigger
problems" that follows from Esther Boserup's theory.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester_Boserup#Work](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ester_Boserup#Work)

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vinceiiikensin
This blogger SN is a bit delusional, like most of the nationalistic bloggers
anywhere. China was merely a cheap labor source in the routine life of
input/output process for a company seeking to produce commmodity products.
Like many nations before and after, it will be merely a blip in the long
history of factories moving to cheaper and cheaper labor.

SN believes that China can somehow end up like South Korea or Taiwan in terms
of prosperity. But there are many factors why it cannot. 1.) authoritarian
government skimming most of the profits and giving them to inefficient state
owned operations. 2.) population is too large and most are uneducated. 3.)
China will be old before it becomes rich. 4.) the culture of stealing and
copying prevent it from developing a healthy middle class 5.) China have
incurred debts too massive, and choose to invest in poor investment. 6.) it
had angered its investors, namely japan, South Korea, Taiwan, US, Europe, with
many of its belligerent actions 7.) it has angered many other developing
countries. In short, most countries in the world do not want China to succeed

And so we have the reality today: China is way too indebted and a wave of
defaults has commenced. Factories and firms have moved out of China. Luxury
sales have crashed 50%. Home sales in 2019 have crashed 60%. account deficit
will be negative for the year. Import and export are all down. And the hike in
tariff is yet to come. This is all happening in the background of declining
fertility, population contraction in 2030, and middle income trap, where most
Chinese earn less than $1000/month.

~~~
naringas
> In short, most countries in the world do not want China to succeed

I wouldn't be so sure about that. I suppose most * developed * countries do
not want China to succeed.

But what about African countries? or Latin American countries?

~~~
vinceiiikensin
African countries with large Muslim population certainly hate China. As with
most other developing Muslim countries.

~~~
forkLding
Pakistan and China have been the strongest of allies since 1970s, Iran and the
Middle East heavily trades with China, I've lived in the Middle East for 10+
years, money doesn't lie. More and more "dragon malls" from China are being
opened up and local Muslims sometimes go to Chinese universities.

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plexiglass
Thanks for sharing. I've been looking for "news" sources from present day
China. Very helpful.

