Tomorrow China will celebrate 100 years from the formation of the Communist party, and reflect a little on its history. I am inviting you to tell me what you think about how this party has governed over the last 72 years of uninterrupted power over the Chinese state. It has been a long time, meaning that modern China is the creature of the work and thoughts of its ruling party.
The first 30 years of the party were years of struggle, as it recruited mass support, fashioned the Red army, fought a civil war and helped the nation dismiss the Japanese invasion. The era of Mao in government or influencing government from 1949 to 1976 saw the experiment of the Great Leap forward from 1958-62 as they sought to nationalise everything and organise work in communes. This led to falls in farm output and many millions dying of famine. This was followed by the Cultural revolution, when young recruits turned against experts and denounced those who did not support the party sufficiently. This too proved disruptive to economic progress. These two movements are now seen as mistakes by many Chinese.
The 30 years from 1978 saw the Chinese economy make rapid progress from a low base, thanks to the Deng reforms. He decided that China needed small independent farms, small businesses, more competition and some privatisation to inject life and growth. The economy sustained growth of almost 10% per annum. More recently the growth rate has slowed, though the policy is still portrayed as Deng’s “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. There is some ambivalence today about how much further if at all the pro market and free enterprise reforms will be allowed to go.
China today has a per capita income and GDP of $10,000. This is one quarter the level of Japan, which decided to rebuild its gravely damaged wartime economy with more of the west’s free enterprise and democratic system. The Chinese level is less than one sixth of the US, adopting an alternative government and economic strategy. Those who want the state to control more of our lives should pause to ask why so far after 72 years in office Chinese communism has delivered so much less per capita income than the advanced democracies.
June 30, 2021
China must have done very well.
So well in fact that our very own Dear Leader seeks to recreate it here.
Turns not a hair when Wembley pays homage to the communist party!
He loves it all!
And adores the plus Ƨa change Health Ministerās EU travel passport.
Whipped it up in two days flat!
June 30, 2021
You beat me to it.
On the face of it I’d say China seems to have done very well in the fact that ‘made in China’ seems to be slapped on everything like ‘Brighton’ through a stick of rock. That gives a lot of leverage surely?
It seems also to have a lot of clout on the UN and I’m just trying to imagine the difference in government/media responses and sabre rattling should a certain virus have had links to Putin’s Russia.
The phrase on every politicians lips ‘Build Back Better’ would be one Mao would be proud of.
Certain quarters think that China will do very well out of our carbon neutral future too.
So all in all this could be China’s century as some say, and perhaps some are already looking for their place in the Empire.
June 30, 2021
+1
June 30, 2021
Reported that the Government have implemented a policy that wealthy businessmen do not have to quarantine when they enter the country, only the oiks. Not too long to the Zil lanes. Also an advisor is pushing the idea of a tax on meat and dairy products to put them out of reach of common folk. But the ‘Great Reset’ is just a product of our fevered imagination.
June 30, 2021
Ha..big question; and much has what has been achieved lately has been unrelated to Communism .
The supposed threat of China is much exaggerated. We see little of the vast areas in which life is still poor and rural and although its GDP makes it one of the big three ( US EU China ) look at GDP per capita
China USD 10261
UK USD 42330
US USD 63416
On Communism I think a better comparison is East and West Germany, I once met Polly Toynbee ( true story ) and she asked me what my objection to Jeremy Corbyn was . I said ..well Polly one has the horrible feeling that when everyone was trying to escape to West Germany he would have been going the other way.
I still think Kane has to be dropped by the way – just saying
June 30, 2021
Excellent comment about Mr Corbyn… š
Re: Kane, I think that he is a reasonable diversion for the opposition, if they waste effort marking him…
June 30, 2021
Newmania, what is the EU GDP in USD?
June 30, 2021
Reading this blog, I have read numerous times the EU was not a state.
Anyway for 2019 the GDP per capita is $37,104; the GDP per capita PPP is $44,369.
For comparison, the UK GDP per capita is $43,688; the GDP per capita PPP is $46,699.
For Germany, $47,628 and $53,815, for France, $44,317. and $46,183.
All from your friendly tradingeconomics.com
Next question?
June 30, 2021
Yes I have one heffy.
What has GDP per Capita measured over 27 nations in a group got to do with proving the EU is a state?
Even the UN doesn’t recognise the EU as a nation.
Neither does France and Germany
July 1, 2021
Silly me, I thought I was just answering a-tracyās query to newmania.
And in fact some hyper intelligent people saw through it: I was proving that the EU is a state. I have been found out!
July 1, 2021
hefner, the next question is are you ‘Newmania’ too? Thank you for providing me with the source as Newmania’s post didn’t do that.
So are these figures all for the same year with the UK in the EU figures you provided? The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union I never claimed it was a State?
US USD 63416
UK USD 42330
EU27 USD 37104
China USD 10261
These figures are all from 2019?
July 2, 2021
a-tracy, I had provided the sources for these numbers but after 24 hours it has not yet appeared. So I try again ā¦
tradingeconomics.com then go to top āIndicatorsā then āCountriesā choose a country then āGDPā
All figures for 2019.
July 2, 2021
Oh dear heffy.
Never mind.
Have another go.
Maybe you will get your post right next time.
June 30, 2021
A superpower that thinks its people are dispensable is not to be underestimated.
June 30, 2021
I never thought about the Johnson Government being considered that – makes you think, doesn’t it?
June 30, 2021
Oh, the EU is one of the “big three”, is it, Newmania? Yet how can it be compared to the modern USA (or to China)? The EU is not yet a unitary state. Nor is it merely a few countries cooperating on trade – you do not cite TPP as “one of the big four”. So the EU, being a centrally controlled group of sub-states, is an empire.
Since EU law has primacy, and not even the most extreme europhile can claim the EU itself is democratic, perhaps you’re right about comparing the EU empire to China. And given that Biden’s votes seem to emulate Honecker’s, perhaps you’re right to include Biden’s USA as well. It is amusing to see the similarities.
June 30, 2021
The EU is not a country
July 2, 2021
Oh yes it is
June 30, 2021
Sparrow stew anyone?
June 30, 2021
I thought it would be bat stew?
June 30, 2021
Lol!š¦
June 30, 2021
China? We should build a wall around it.
June 30, 2021
“We”
It’s good to start the day with a roaring laugh-out-loud.
Thanks.
June 30, 2021
How kind.
June 30, 2021
You didn’t seem to think that Trump’s wall was so amusing, did you, Martin? Is that because you admire China more than the USA?
June 30, 2021
The Chinese people are oppressed by a failed hardline government – run by a corrupt, morally bankrupt, self interested clique – who shun the views of majority, dismiss expertise and implement policies knowing they will cause harm.
Pretty similar to the British people under this failed Brexit government. But at least Chinaās economy is growing at decent long term rate.
June 30, 2021
And they only had around 5,000 covid19 dead in their billion plus people, and have extinguished their epidemic.
June 30, 2021
5,000 ? How do you know ?
June 30, 2021
I remember my parents being amused some decades ago when a left-wing friend came back from a visit to a China and came back full of praise. One of things she said was “it’s incredible in Shanghai last year the only crime was a bicycle was stolen!”
June 30, 2021
4,636 “reported” deaths…there fixed it for you…
June 30, 2021
Strangely, I can see where Andy is coming from!
Can China, however, predict the coming of a variant with as much accuracy as we can?
Apparently, we are so prescient that plans are being made for an October – April lockdown!
Dentists and some medics have been warned.
Whatever can our MPs think of that then?
June 30, 2021
EH, āas much accuracy as we canā: gnarf, gnarf, You cannot, the biologists working with genome sequencing techniques can. Thatās quite a difference, I would guess. Do not drape yourself in the British scientistsā flag.
And yes, the Chinese have these tools too, thatās how they were able to point out the new virus in January 2020. The gene sequencing had been done by Prof Zhang Yongzhen at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre.
And in case you wonder, once you have done the sequencing of one virus and registered it, it is (relatively) easy to get another sequencing and check whether all the bits and bobs correspond or not. Any (almost) basic comparison computer program can do that.
June 30, 2021
All that academic intelligence and you believe everything a communist state tells you hef .
Hilarious.
July 1, 2021
No, without more, I assume that he believes what international investigators – and independent people like my daughter actually in China for a year fairly recently – have to say about their observations.
July 1, 2021
MiC
Your daughter sees just a tiny fraction of what goes on in China.
And only what the communists want people to see read and hear..
Independent…UN officials who are very friendly towards the CCP
June 30, 2021
well, they know precisely when their spies, oops students return from western countries. A percentage will have Covid with variants. So – plan ahead….
June 30, 2021
Source: Macro trends ‘The current life expectancy for U.K. in 2021 is 81.52 years, a 0.15% increase from 2020. Life expectancy in China in 2020 was 76.96’
‘Both age and comorbidity are established risk factors for death among those infected with COVID-19. Because they often co-exist, it is difficult to assess if age is a risk factor on its own.’ The Lancet
The UK death figures include all deaths ‘with cv19’ not just of CV19. The figure you quote from China of 5,000 dead is that for the same category of deaths, were their dead tested with cv19?
Individuals living in care homes experienced the highest excess mortality (75- >100% in April, 25ā50% in May, 0ā25% in June, depending on age). Individuals with home care showed the second highest magnitude (30ā60% in April, 15ā40% in May, 0ā25% in June), while individuals in independent living experienced excess primarily at the highest ages (5ā50% in April, 5ā50% in May, 0ā25% in June).
Were the Chinese excess deaths occurring in similar establishments?
June 30, 2021
Your figures for the tremendous numbers of care-home related Chinese plague virus deaths are shocking, even when expressed as percentages. Hancock and those around him involved in the decision to move elderly in hospital to care homes – without testing them first – should be investigated by the HSE and prosecuted for corporate manslaughter. This fatal blunder was then compounded by the decision not to vaccinate front-line care staff across the NHS first.
June 30, 2021
No they haven’t. ‘Their’ epidemic plagues the world. Mainly because they lied about it.
June 30, 2021
Communism / The Free Market (or ‘Capitalism’ as some might call it) are of secondary importance to the cultural / ethical values of a people. Sadly / tragically, we in The West are relatively spoilt (me included) and dumped, from one degree to another, our rich cultural / ethical heritage (Judaeo-Christian / the best of Greco-Roman) for a rat-race, self-obsessed individualism. Where as the Chinese are, relatively-speaking, less spoilt and still take their Confucian/Taoist values and heritage seriously underlined with an increasing attachment to Judaeo-Christian values as well.
June 30, 2021
Well, that’s alright then, Martin. Isn’t it?
June 30, 2021
hilariously naive.
June 30, 2021
Mic
Do you really believe that China only had 5000 deaths?
According to China, people were falling down dead in the street. There were videos out on the internet from CCP. Funny that didnāt happen in any other country.
NASA were puzzled by a dark cloud coming up from Wuhan for two days, at the beginning of last year – and during those two days, all mobile phone networks were down in Wuhan. Mass cremations? Donāt know.
But many people died of starvation from being welded into their homes.
I think believing what China says, should be taken with a large pinch of salt.
June 30, 2021
Do you believe everything they publish?
June 30, 2021
If you believe that, MiC, then you will quite literally believe anything. Your comment I’m afraid displays an absolutely jaw-dropping level of naivety and gullibility
June 30, 2021
Their death-toll has moved up by only 2 since last autumn, while a number of countries relying on Chinese vaccine have seen it to be of dubious efficacy. So, I won’t be believing the Chinese figures.
June 30, 2021
How was the BBQ Andy ? No use of fossil fuel I hope – all vegan sausages cooked using a heat pump ?
June 30, 2021
Reminds me more of the ruling junta of the eu, no democracy and protectionism
June 30, 2021
So Marxist ‘Theory’ is still the ideal Andy – it’s just that no one seems to be able to make it work. I guess in your view, the Chinese Communist State would be a wonderful place to live, if only they had better leaders? So part of the problem just boils down to getting ‘better leaders’ then? Well the Chinese don’t have a solution to that problem, they are stuck with the ones they have….
We (of course) do have elections and end up with someone like Boris (who obviously is far from perfect) so I guess the next part of the ‘problem’ is to find a way to have much better ‘informed’ voters? So how could we do that I wonder?
Well, obviously we could train and indoctrinate them to vote ‘the right way’ from a very early age and then onwards into higher education? Perhaps, we could infiltrate our schools, universities and government and educate them to vote more sensibly (e.g. in the right way – for the ‘good’ Leaders). In fact, it seems we are already doing this (and have been for some time)..
Unfortunately, I think the Chinese have already tried that approach and it doesn’t seem to work, because they still don’t allow free elections. Maybe as people grow up and begin to lead their own lives, they come to realise that ‘theories’ are fine but their reality is quite different. There are no perfect leaders and there is no perfect system. On balance though, I think I’m happier with the imperfect one we currently have, than the one the Chinese have to live under.
PS – As for their ‘death rate’ – it’s what they tell us it is, which I very much doubt bears any resemblance to the real facts.
June 30, 2021
Andy: but at least Britain has the option of elections.
July 1, 2021
SM – so has the USA and look what they get!
June 30, 2021
Andy, will you still be obsessing about Brexit when the WEF have you living in a rented room in a tower block, banned from consuming alcohol, and eating crickets? Wake up man, there is a bigger game afoot.
June 30, 2021
Andy, When is the next general election in China? Do tell.
June 30, 2021
and who are standing for election? Where have they worked, in what disciplines? Who gets to vote men, women, teenagers, Uighurs? What independant audit is done on the wards?
June 30, 2021
The real question is, are the chinese happy with chinese communism. Well many in Hongkong seem less than enthusiastic. Their human rights record is abysmal in Tibet and with their own divergent communities. They have no respect for intellectual property and have as a government no respect for their neighbours, Taiwan in particular. Our dillitante left, particularly in higher education should be curbed from consorting with them. They are just as large a security threat as ISIS. The free world particularly in the Pacific needs to be seen to be strong so that any further geographical incursions by China are discouraged. Such should remain until they rot from within. Trade with them should be confined to plastic baubles, selling them no advanced technology, nor allowing their finance any place in our economy. Be prepared for a very long ride and cease listening to their paid agents within our own establishment.
June 30, 2021
The Chinese think long term and unfortunately, the West does not.
It’s a very long time since I used to walk past CCP shops (in HK) with loud speakers blasting out (in Cantonese) that I was a “Running Dog of the American Imperialists” – but the man in the doorway was always smiling and very happy to sell me the remarkably cheap goods inside. I used to smile back and pretend I didn’t know what the speakers were blaring out – but I always knew that smiling man despised me. I very much doubt anything has changed.
June 30, 2021
Too late, Agricola. China has been used by the Western mega corporations (and some small ones too) to manufacture cheaply. The result? – the Chinese have copied almost everything the West has developed from microprocessors to machine tools, by way of mobile phones, cars and naval ships.
June 30, 2021
and their hacking is becoming world class, too!
June 30, 2021
And do tell me, NickC, who decided that most western countries had to go for cheaper cost of production therefore cheaper workforce? Please tell me which brilliant minds, for example, decided that the UK should concentrate on financial activities and let manufacturing go down to about 10% of GDP? (And possibly to near zero if I have followed correctly Patrick Minford CBEās line of thought in 2012 and thereafter).
People who had swallowed D.Ricardo, F.Hayek, M.Friedman with their meals at Oxford? Or Reds in tooth and claw (under the bed, obviously) Marxists?
June 30, 2021
Yet standards of living in Europe and UK have risen hugely over the last decades.
Odd that.
June 30, 2021
Taiwan is not a neighbour-it is part of China.It has never declared independence and is an artificial “state” recognised only by a handful of microstates.It came into being as a result of the US sending a fleet to protect the losing Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War when they fled there with the gold reserves and all the most precious cultural artefacts that they could get their hands on.
You may not like the PRC but that is the position under International Law;Churchill and Roosevelt agreed it should return to China(having being invaded and occupied by Japan in a war of aggression in the 1890s) at the Casablanca conference,and,when subsequently consulted,Stalin also agreed.
June 30, 2021
Does that apply to Tibet, Mitchel? The Taiwanese wish to remain independent. They have that right under UN self-determination rules. That is the legal position.
July 1, 2021
Taiwan isn’t independent in a legal sense.
Tibet has a long and tangled history with China.As an empire in it’s own right it had occupied a large chunk of Western China in the middle ages.Defeated by the Mongols under Kublai Khan they offered themselves into perpetual subjection to the Great Khan as Kublai himself became when he completed the conquest of China.Tibet stayed with the China when the Mongol empire was subdivided,the Chinese portion becoming the Yuan dynasty.That is how the Chinese see it.
July 1, 2021
‘The real question is, are the chinese happy with chinese communism..’ The Chinese are not like the GDR which didn’t allow their people to travel but China does, in their millions, so giving them a chance to find out how things are done elsewhere and to dislike their own system which seems to indicate that the Chinese leaders are not worried about that and are confident with their system.
June 30, 2021
More questions than answers. There seems to be too many “incidents” that keep coming to the surface regarding human rights, to many of the people living in gross poverty, archaic working conditions, treatment of animals with its dog and wet markets and festivals the perceived cover up over Wuhan.
People are asking too many questions and this in turn puts pressure onto their politicians. The pressure is building for change and the Chinese people will continue to slowly keep the heat rising.
The best thing the rest of the world can do is mind its own business let the Chinese people be the real masters of their own destiny. Either way eventually it will economically cost the rest of the world dear when the is no longer cheap products.
June 30, 2021
Eventually the people will revolt. It always happens when they start to get affluent and there is a large poor cohort.
June 30, 2021
I wonder what happens when a people become affluent, made it, did it first, achieved a great deal and then had it wilfully taken away from them by a load of rabid wolves in democracyās clothing?
Expressions of great anger I imagine.
June 30, 2021
90% of people don’t care that much what political organisation governs them as long as they have job security, money to spend on their holidays and money saved in bank for rainy day, good pension, health, education, police, good sex life, nice food, enough beer / wine etc, their football / rugby / cricket team is winning … Really, it’s as simple as that (And I think the Communist leaders of China get this – unlike Communist leaders from 30+ years ago who were far more ideological – China’s kind of stuck with Communism at moment, so I think its leaders just want to make it as practical for its people as possible).
June 30, 2021
Politicians (and journalists) etc are often obsessed by politics, from one degree to another, but NOT most people. And politicians also often exaggerate the effective power of politics (too much political power is corrosive to a nation). A country can only do really well if its people have a healthy cultural / ethical outlook on life which they get from Education, the Media, the Arts, Religion etc – when these institutions are doing their jobs properly. Politics (and economic policy) is still important but not that important (you can make a tonne of money as an entrepreneur in China as you can in the UK).
June 30, 2021
possibly but access to info on the outside world is well controlled – only bettered by the N.Koreans.
July 1, 2021
Millions of Chinese travel abroad and can get all the info they want, readily available, so the leaders are not afraid of that.
June 30, 2021
China was the richest country in the world until just after the Napoleonic Wars.It has been there,done that several times over in it’s ultra long history.Competition for the lucrative international trade in it’s luxury goods was the cause of many wars between the Persian and Roman/Byzantine Empires over many centuries.
Our host has written a piece of propaganda-he should have started with the damage done to China by western imperialism in the mid-late 19th century,the interventions (and mass looting and destruction of the capital)in the Boxer rebellion encouraged by misinformation/disinformation by the local correspondent of The Times,and the devastation and war crimes committed by Britain’s ally,Japan in Manchuria and later China proper in the 2oth century.
Taking into account what happened in the “Century of Humiliation”,China’s recovery has actually been rather impressive,regardless of political ideology.
June 30, 2021
Good morning.
One has to look at the USA and the United Kingdom over the same period. Whilst the USA benefited and grew, the UK and her Empire declined. This was especially so after the WWII when the UK, France, the Netherlands and others were forced to dismantle their protectionist Empires and open them up to world markets. So I would say that the USA has benefited most from Capitalism whilst others not.
One also has to take into consideration of what happened to the former Soviet Union. After its fall and subsequent breakup the Chinese learned from the Soviets mistakes. It realised that it had to replace its current system, which was not working, and adapt Capitalist economics but overseen and controlled by the Chinese Government and Communist Party. Many business are run and owned by them or the military, which is not quite as economically open as some seem to think. There is also nationalism to look at. The CCP ha replaced the concept of the ‘Great Leader’ with one of Nationhood and Patriotism. Whilst I support the latter the former is used to promote anti-western sentiment. This is a diversionary tactic employed by all undemocratic regime designed to fool the masses.
China is rising but, with a growing Middle-class how long will it be before the CCP comes under alternative political pressure. So far with double digit growth is can stave off the inevitable but, if the economy falters and peoples wealth and living standards drop, there could be a desire for change and I am not sure if the CCP can meet that.
June 30, 2021
Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. AJP Taylor.
Tax in total was about 8% of national income. Also In 1914 British income per capita was the world’s third highest, exceeded only by New Zealand and Australia. Boris and Sunak with their tax, borrow and waste agenda seem to want to aim for a state sector of ~ 80% of the economy!
June 30, 2021
Mark B, One of the oddest things is to hear socialists exculpate their ideology by sneering at the capitalist consumer society. Socialism was originally to improve the material lot of its adherents by wresting wealth and control from “capitalists” (an invention of socialism to provide a coherent enemy).
But socialism failed in that primary aim. Failed so badly that socialists had to cast around for alternative reasons for us to be all poor together under state control. So according to Martin, China is to be admired for “extinguishing their epidemic” – but never mind how, or even whether it’s true. No wonder that socialists laud the dirigiste EU empire, and have grabbed onto the CAGW hoax with both hands.
June 30, 2021
49.7C in Lytton, BC, all the fault of the socialo-communo-marxists.
Fortunately for you ridicule does not kill.
July 1, 2021
‘…if the economy falters and peoples wealth and living standards drop, there could be a desire for change ..’ This has happened in the UK and is happening now and I see no desire to change our system!
June 30, 2021
The current unanswered question is Wuhan. Was it caused by sloppy laboratory proceedures or was it deliberate. Either way it has been a massive blow to human life on our planet and to the economic life of the free world. China owes it to both enormously. Let it be a lesson to all who would sup with the devil.
June 30, 2021
We were indebted to China for helping us to delay our bankruptcy and soften the effects of inflation. They owe us nothing.
Exposure to viruses and communist lies were risks we took knowingly.
It is certainly not their fault that we have overreacted in so many ways. It is not their fault that we appointed aMinister who – it transpires – was having the time of his life in lockdown and quite likely wanted it to continue for fear of losing his lustre and access to his mistress.
It certainly would explain duff data being advanced to cancel Freedom Day.
June 30, 2021
Certainly seems extremely likely it was one of those two. Yet Rabb and our government are still pretending(?) the wet market is the most likely source. I think not the evidence against this is substantial. The US and UK must surely know for sure by now?
June 30, 2021
It’s far too soon to say.
June 30, 2021
But only if you regard individuals as unimportant, Martin.
June 30, 2021
A bit slow, arenāt you NickC? Zhou Enlai to Nixon in 1972 about the French Revolution (or possibly the French Mayā68). Despite you āputting on those airsā you seem to have a rather limited āculture gĆ©nĆ©raleā.
July 1, 2021
I see heffy is in one of his bad moods NickC.
July 1, 2021
Oh no, not bad mood at all, I really enjoy this blog, for its anthropological interest, you know, like it is a window open on some far-flung corners of the UK.
And I have to admit it generally is of a much better quality of writing than the BTL comments of the Sun or DM.
So as DH would say: āGo on, make my dayā.
June 30, 2021
Time is irrelevant. What matters is access to the background and events.
Start with the French Lab design, the building rules, the post build inspection, the useage disciplines and how well followed. The French were not allowed to visit to inspect post build for a start.
The ‘bat lady’ did whatever she wanted – where are the Chinese ‘ethics’ organisation like we have to follow?
Then coincidences – the bat viruses transported from a known site hundreds if not >1000 miles away. The controls, the possible transmission, the possibility of leak via waste matter – – –
You know it ain’t gonna happen.
China has full force ‘innocence’ underway. Even trying to blame western forces for planting it!
June 30, 2021
Maybe MiC but perhaps you now feel able to decide on the French Revolution.
June 30, 2021
I travelled around Communist Vietnam 15 yrs ago on clapped-out moped – and had best fun ever! Communism didn’t rear its ugly head once.
I’m agains Communism but I also think the rat-race individualism of the West just as bad – not just to individuals but also to individualism.
I’d love to see the UK return to free market principles based on our Judae-Christian values and the best of our Greco-Roman values (although there’s a lot we can learn from Confucionism and Taoism in China.
June 30, 2021
They are taking up in huge numbers of overseas places at our Universities.
They hold huge influence in the world by purchasing much needed raw materials from even poorer countries.
Human rights are rather debatable.
Their industrial power is massive, as is their pollution, but much of the Worlds green products are manufactured there.
But we still send them Foreign Aid, so they must be in a worse position than us I guess !
June 30, 2021
Of more importance to me is the fact that the U.K. loses Ā£51 billion per year through fraud and waste with a further Ā£20 billion plus, half of all the emergency lending schemes because officials failed to include basic anti fraud software when the scheme was devised.
So inept officials cost us an eye watering amount. I guess they will all keep their jobs, bullet and inflation proof pensions etc.
And in the meantime fat cats, business/football etc will be allowed in un quarantined whilst ordinary folk are subject to police State tactics of intrusive daily phone calls and threats of a āgestapoā type knock on the door.
Animal farm had never been more relevant.
June 30, 2021
The improvement in living standards for so many people is a great thing. The political oppression, the crushing of Hong Kong in defiance of the treaty, the atrocities against the Uighurs, the oppression of Tibet and threats to Taiwan etc are appalling. We have to thank President Trump for waking the world up to the threat of China after years of western kow tow.
But look at Taiwan – itās achieved much higher levels of prosperity from the same base, but done so in what is now a free, democratic country. In spite of being under massive threat from China. Time to recognise and celebrate the success of Taiwan.
July 1, 2021
Taiwan owes it’s industrialisation to the Japanese occupation from the 1890s to the end of WWII.The irony of Japanese imperialism is that they invested heavily in their pre-WWII conquests-much more than the British ever did-see also Korea and Manchuria.
Concern in the west and particularly the US re Taiwan’s future is undoubtedly influenced by the fact that Taiwan Semiconductor accounts of 92% of the world’s output of advanced semiconductors.
June 30, 2021
its done a good job of convincing Western governments of taxing pollution and industrial processes so much that all of those kinds of jobs have been shut down in the West, and all the work and jobs has been moved to China.
they have done a good job of conducting psych ops on Western countries so that they sabotage their own industry in the name of green nonsense.
they did a good job of lying about Hong Kong, and getting the territory back on false pretences.
June 30, 2021
Very true.and we lapped it up
June 30, 2021
If we keep allowing low pay immigration on this level we will eventually be challenging China for the lowest GDP per capita. Why does the government keep reducing the pay level for legal immigration? Have we totally lost the will to train up our own people or get the unemployed into work?
Where is the infrastructure and services to cope with such high levels of immigration and how do we feed them without increasing our imports, when good arable land is being used for housing?
On an aside, the EU have lowered their food standards (in more ways than one). Do we have the ability to ban such EU food from our country? If not, why not?
June 30, 2021
Top down doesn’t work as well as bottom up in achieving better living standards. The Deng reforms clearly demonstrated that. UK governments also are too enamoured of legislating their pet projects into law (Climate change act/0.7% of GDP for foreign aid/HS2) rather than let markets decide. The UK is now much too close to Orwell’s world of 1984 for comfort.
June 30, 2021
I would suggest that it is as much the ability to just override objections through connections that gets things done in China as bottom up pressure.
June 30, 2021
Millions died of starvation under Communism in both Russia and China. Hard to characterise that as anything other than an abject failure of the system unless you are either Jeremy Corbyn or are disappointed at the result of the Brexit refendum in 2016 in which case you think the current Conservative government is worse.
June 30, 2021
And in other news Ian Duncan Smith lauds Borisās approval of his post Brexit de regulation proposals with Boris confirming action will be taken soonest.
Given Borisās predilection for pointing both ways just to get rid of a person/problem, does anyone take this with anything more than a pinch of salt?
June 30, 2021
But what criteria are we using to judge it by?
Economically China has done well in providing cheap goods to the rest of the world, wiping out the higher priced competition, and making the West dependent on them.
Economics is but one part of the picture:
Before we find in China’s favour, and aspire to their model, of having become a financial and military powerhouse we also have to ask who is this all done for – is it going to benefit the average Chinese person, or is it driven for and by those that rule?
There are many things to be admired about the Chinese, from traditional medicine to their work ethic, but there is little to welcome in the way their communist state imposes itself so heavily all around it as well as within.
June 30, 2021
China? Well, it’s all about the power and who holds it, isn’t it? The EU operates a similar seductive, but predatory bureaucratic model, although they currently have the irritation of national governments to contend with…….they have the patience of Job, though! It’s perhaps why successive European governments have failed to see the dangers of its cumulative powergrab…….it’s all too familiar and comfortable until it’s too late.
June 30, 2021
Indeed.
As you say :- “Those who want the state to control more of our lives should pause to ask why so far after 72 years in office Chinese communism has delivered so much less per capita income than the advanced democracies.”
73 years of NHS communism too and the same applies. With deaths per Covid infection often nearly three time many other countries and this will the UK doing excessive testing so the ratio should be lower not higher.
Just heard Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth demonstrating how completely out of her depth she is on radio 4. Not sure what she studied at Oxford Poly but does not seem to have been physics, energy engineering, maths, reason or logic I suspect. The UK will stop burning coal shortly it seems (but doubtless just burn more imported wood at Drax which will increase CO2 per KWH but maintain the fake illusion of low carbon electricity)! Her boss is brighter than her but still does not have a clue. Put Peter Lilley/Matt Ridley in charge of this department.
June 30, 2021
I must admit it completely astounds me that the PM his cabinet and to some part his influential wife can just seemingly totally ignore the child slavery and the oppression of people in the mining and production of raw earth materials to feed the lemming like charge to zero CO2. All the while China power production operations fly in the face of reasoning and common sense.
July 1, 2021
+1 and they save no or at best no significant CO2 anyway after manufacture of car and battery is added in to the charge electricity needed.
June 30, 2021
As history tells us, the CCP is a world leader in the field of killing it’s own people. After Chairman Mao Zedong announced the formation of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949, he launched his “Great Leap Forward” campaign to consolidate power by destroying the landlord class and collectivising agriculture. The resulting famine resulted in an estimated 50 million Chinese starving to death.
During the 1960’s Mao launched his “Cultural Revolution” to destroy the remaining “class enemies” (read rich peasants) under the “dictatorship of the proletariat” Another 75 millions more were persecuted and killed, or purged and exiled.
After Mao’s death Deng Xiaoping moderated Mao’s leftist policies, introduced “socialism with a market economy” and stated as China took the capitalist road – “to get rich is glorious”. This policy has worked in that millions of Chinese have been taken out of poverty.
The 19th Century was the British century. The 20th Century was the American century, the 21st Century will be the Chinese century. After the invasion of Tibet in 1956 and the probable “final solution” underway in Xinjang”, watch out Taiwan. China has border disputes with all of it’s neighbours.
June 30, 2021
Widely reported yesterday that swathes of arable land on the East Coast are being taken out of production to become solar power generators. Who predominantly manufactures the solar panels or provide the materials for their manufacture?
It is being reported in the Times that the new batch windfarmsre going to cost billions inconstant payments to the consumer. More examples of building something and getting it paid for by not using it by the consumers. When are the politicians going to wise and wake up and smell the coffee. The only people to gain will be the shareholders. Until there is an operational infrastructure in place to serve and manage the demands that are going to be made on it, all new projects should be stopped until a full investigation to where does the money really go to actually give the country a power infrastructure so desperately needs. Cheap power is the main catalyst to improving industrial performance.
We are lucky if we actually have got 100 MPs who actually understand the principles behind successful power generation and distribution.
June 30, 2021
Inconstant should have read in constraint
June 30, 2021
Absolutely brilliant seeing hundreds of English flags flying with such pride last night. A joy to behold. Kane had his moment.
June 30, 2021
A moment out of 4 matches?
June 30, 2021
World domination is China’s goal but has stalled while they are buying the Belt Road and sabre rattling Taiwan who embarrass the Commune with their magnificent success just like Hong Kong jewels, now two duels that challenge the very thoughts of Mao!
June 30, 2021
Credit might be due for bringing order and stability to China and improving the lives of the people generally but “Mao: the unknown story” by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday caused me to wonder if things might have been better for most had Chang Kai Shek prevailed instead. Long preventing interference by foreigners might be the best accomplishment.
The post-Deng reforms spectacular economic growth might have been replicated by any regime. Michael Pettis now warns about unproductive investment (e.g. ghost cities) and there do seem to arise many problems because of CCP involvement that interferes with the underlying capitalistic model. The lack of or restriction upon numerous human rights suggests the people live much worse than Westerners although acceptance appears widespread and they do benefit from many aspects of long-established Chinese culture.
Overall, the record is unenviable but it would have been easy enough to do very much worse.
(I would not wish you to think from the foregoing that I for one do other than welcome our new Chinese overlords.)
June 30, 2021
I must admit to having other things on my mind – above all the Belfast High Court judgment on the Irish protocol to be handed down at ten o’clock this morning, then this article about people’s attitudes towards the protocol in Northern Ireland:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/30/northern-ireland-voters-split-on-need-for-brexit-checks-poll-reveals
“Northern Ireland voters split on need for Brexit checks, poll reveals”
and then this article from yesterday which indirectly illustrates the pointlessness of checking everything coming into Northern Ireland just to weed out the tiny volume of goods which might be carried further across the land border into the Republic when they should not be allowed to enter the EU Single Market, given that hardly any non-compliant goods are being taken direct from Great Britain to the Republic:
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/post-brexit-checks-rejecting-less-than-1-of-british-imports-1.4604930
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/agribusiness-and-food/post-brexit-checks-rejecting-less-than-1-of-british-imports-1.4604930
“Post-Brexit checks rejecting less than 1% of British imports”
“Inspectors carried out 27,918 checks on those consignments in that 24-week period to June 20th. Just 175 consignments, or 0.7 per cent of those processed, were rejected, mostly because the imports were not accompanied by the required health certificate.”
June 30, 2021
I think 100 years of Chinese communism has found grave fault and weakness in the West. I am sure that human history will be written in Chinese.
June 30, 2021
Of course one cannot like the Communist system of compulsion, oppression and lack of individual liberty, but if you are measuring success in terms of relative GDP per capita, surely you must take into account the differing situations at the starting point, in particular the fact that in 1949 China was with its hugely impoverished rural peasant population, a far more primitive country than its rivals in the West, and Japan. Use of Google provides varying figures, but taking your $10k number as the present GDP/Capita for China, this shows growth of 16.3 times from the $614 I can find for 1950. Against this the UK grew 5.82 times from $6,939 to $40,406, and the US, 6.62 times from $9,573 to $63,416 in the same period. Japan appears to have outstripped them all by rising 25.7 times from $1,873 in 1950 to a forecast $48,200 in 2020.
I do not think you can call that a bad performance by the Chinese. How much of it is down to their governmental system, and how much in spite of it, with the incredible work ethic of the people is of course a very interesting question.
June 30, 2021
I was taught that communism and a free market economy cannot coexist. However, from what I understand the relatively major growth in recent years has come where much of their business received state support to keep costs low and growth high. As an example when the oil price was low last year the Chinese government ordered oil in bulk and 117 VLCC’s (large tankers) were China bound at one stage carrying millions of barrels. In dealing with the Chinese companies you can never really determine the line between private and state in my experience. Clearly they have made economic strides and although 10K GDP seems low, its probably musch high than it was and we hear that China creates 300 millionaires per day. The question for me is really what would happen if they moved to a fully privatized economy – would it be ever more successful or would the loss of state aid kill any progress ?
June 30, 2021
In order to provide a real answer to the question in the last sentence, one has to consider not just where various countries are now, but where they have come from. If China’s GDP per capita is currently 1/6th that of the USA and 1/4 that of Japan now, how has that changed, if at all, since 1945? From the figures I can find online, the gap in 1945 was much, much larger, and so over the post-war period, economic advancement in China has been occurring at a much faster rate than in the USA, Japan, or, indeed, the UK, albeit starting from a much lower base.
Taking the classic politicians approach of being selective about the data you use because it supports the conclusion you already decided you wanted to make in the first place does not give a full picture. Reality is never as simple as a politician with an agenda to push would wish to paint it.
June 30, 2021
Western countries with their greed for cheap goods have allowed a communist country to become a world superpower. As we have seen in recent years this hasnāt boded well for their near neighbours like Hong Kong, Tibet, and Taiwan, nor for freedom of religion and the climate. Politicians here and around the world would be wise to wean their countries off cheap imports. The madness of our politicians aiming for net-zero when we produce less than 1% greenhouse emissions needs to be stopped. IDS wrote a good article on the folly of net-zero yesterday. We need more of our politicians to make their voices heard before Boris takes away our liberties. These net-zero policies will not affect the rich, they will be able to afford to travel, drive cars, own big estates in the country, feed their families, and heat their homes. Itās as if we are doing a culture swap with China. We will be the ones on bicycles whilst they have the luxury cars.
June 30, 2021
At least the Roman Emperors were honest with their people when they declared themselves to be gods. We have Emperor Xi, and King Kim, both of which pretend to be the people’s leaders when they are really the exponents of the sort of absolutist tyrannical government with which Romans would have been familiar.
July 1, 2021
After Constantine the Great converted the empire to Christianity subsequent Emperors adopted the more modest styling of “Equal of the Apostles.”
June 30, 2021
Thankfully the Chinese Cultural Revolution delayed the enormous threat that China is now becoming to the West and democracy.
By providing well organised, efficient and reliable companies they have been given Western technology to build up their economy and technology plus of course stealing IP wherever they could both directly and indirectly through one-way āco-operationā with our top educational establishments, who have been so corrupted they are now on a drive for our own cultural revolution via PC and cancel culture.
To survive we need to develop technologies and a lifestyle to ensure we do not become dependent upon China for anything other than ātattā and certainly not allow them to own UK companies or supply important UK technology or infrastructure.
June 30, 2021
With their oppression of the Uighurs, the CCP is no model for anything. Plus it’s not just the Uighurs, but anyone who doesn’t adhere to the only state approved religion – personality cult of President Xi.
This kind of regime stifles innovation and imagination, so don’t expect China to succeed for much longer, unless countries like the UK can out-stifle them with taxes.
June 30, 2021
The CCP survives on foreign earnings – it requires labour, technology success, modernisation and military might. The people are fed on going from hunger to ‘world leaders’ – the real hungry are kept like mushrooms – you know about that in the UK, too.
The best form of attack on what you don’t like in China is refuse to buy goods.
That will start to break down all of the above.
Recession, unemployment, business failures, return to the fields, even overthrow?
So, make your choice.
July 1, 2021
Well, even if those things are not directly comparable, the saving rate of the Chinese population since 1993 is somewhere between 40 and 50% whereas prior to 2020, the UK equivalent had been around 8-10% (data.worldbank.org Gross Domestic Savings % of GDP).
Furthermore China, essentially the Chinese State, owns $1.1 trillion worth of US Treasuries, 21% of the US debt held by foreign countries (investopedia.com 16/03/2021).
Chinese investors are thought to have Ā£135 billions worth of UK assets. (thetimes.co.uk 02/05/2021).
So surviving on foreign earnings? I guess the actual situation is a bitty more complex than what you think.
June 30, 2021
Given the devastation the country received in World War 2 (longer than any other for China) and the Cultural Revolution, Deng’s reforms have been amazing. China has gone from a nation of poor peasants to a nation of factory workers. This is a bit like Britain between 1800 and 1850.
China has cities as big as London that few in the West have heard of. Wuhan being an unfortunate example.
Going forward, they intend to emulate Western technology. You may have noted the EU/US “truce” on the Boeing/Airbus spat and concerns about Comac. There was also US-EU accords on chip manufacture.
China’s fishing fleets continue to expand globally and is active off of West Africa (Guardian 20 May 2015).
A concern with China is its territorial and military ambitions. It alarms its neighbours to various extents. Regarding Taiwan, I feel the UK should see it as a trade opportunity. As regards defence, we have a bear closer to home to concern ourselves with.
June 30, 2021
While we in the UK can do little to influence the way China progresses in the next fifty years, that has to be left to the chinese people themselves, we can look at our own political map and consider producing one more suited to the way in which the people of the UK wish to see us evolve. I would contend that the current political format is not fit for purpose.
A country’s strength lies first with the people. To realise that strength everyone must have access to the very best education and oppoutunities commensurate with their talent.
The current political system of 800 peers and 650 MPs is a bad joke for a country of 67 million. If you ran a commercial company on the same basis as we do government it would be bancrupt in a year.
The UK tax book is the basis for a whole industry in itself. It needs radical shrinkage. Equally the difference between the earnings at both ends of industry can be utterly obscene. At the ends of reform the agreed rules must apply to everyone. No sweetheart deals, oligarch deals, or special concessions for those who govern.
Lobbying though acceptable in a modified form is at present an obscenity. Post 2016 the activities of the remain establishment emphasised in spades the downside of undemocratic influence, after the people had decided.
There is a growing void that could be filled by new political thinking. I hope it happens and that we do not have to stagger along like the walking wounded, metaphorically and in reality, that we have been for the last five years. We have the talent, lets get on with it.
June 30, 2021
Agricola
“While we in the UK can do little to influence the way China progresses in the next fifty years”
The solution is simple : the rest of the world needs to stop trading with China. Manufacturing needs to be returned to original countries. Oh I forgot the Incs & Corps would have to make less profit.
June 30, 2021
The West should consider itself lucky that the Communist Party has been in charge in China for so long.
Had the party lost power and a proper market economy been established instead of the massive setbacks caused by Mao, the Chinese economy would have been way ahead of even the US a couple of decades ago.
On the other hand, it is just possibly that a long-established democratic system in China might have produced successive governments that were no threat to the rest of the world as the Communists undoubtedly are today. But, given World history, I would not bet on it !
June 30, 2021
Democracy is not the key to economic success but nor is authoritarian rule the key to economic failure.
Both democracy and authoritarianism fail, when people of low ability wield the levers of economic power. We are seeing this under the Tories as we have in the past under Labour.
For an economy to be successful, the basic requirements are an intelligent and industrious people and political stability with rulers who do not try to damage the people for their own ends.
Before the rise of Chinese Communism as an offshoot of the Republican revolution which had overthrown Imperial rule, China had a well developed economy whose produce flooded western markets.
Chinese communism was very much the product of Joseph Stalin who was instrumental in selecting Mao as an appropriately autocratic individual to mirror Bolshevik rule in China. Once in power, everything Mao did was not as a result of his belief in communism but as a result of his determination to hold on to power.
At the end of Mao’s rule, China was economically backward, its intelligentsia had been purged by the Red Guards and most important of all, it totally lacked rule of law and a system of land title all of which had been abolished by Mao. It was inevitable, therefore, that China would struggle to catch up with those countries which historically had been less advanced in comparison. However, it is more certain that China will progress more than the West because the West is determined to dilute its erstwhile high quality people with low quality people from elsewhere and to institute policies designed to stymey economic growth.
It is possible that democracy is superior to authoritarianism as a means of achieving economic growth, but only if its based on a fair electoral system which gives the electorate a better choice than the least worst option, a system that allows low calibre people to rule, funded by wealthy minorities for their own ends.
July 1, 2021
Maoism is Stalinism with Chinese characteristics,yes, but actually Stalin had favoured Chiang kai-Shek,whose son was trained in Moscow during WWII,seeing him as more pliable.Russian foreign policy has almost always been based on geopolitics rather than ideology.
July 1, 2021
I don’t think Bolshevism had much to do with Marxism; that was how it was projected in the West to ideologues. Sounds so much better than bloodthirsty ruffians seize control of a country with financial support from Wall Street bankers. Stalin was exasperated by the internecine strife in China as he had wanted an active ally to take on Japan.
June 30, 2021
China’s biggest success in recent years has been its foreign policy. It has persuaded the West to commit economic suicide in pursuit of climate change while shipping its industry to China, while educating its scientists and engineers with the best Western knowledge. It has tied up supplies of resources and guarantees of support through its Belt and Road initiative, that sees countries dependent on Chinese finance. Its military threat has grown to the point where it is likely that if it chooses to occupy other countries there will be no opposition. Of course, the surrender by the West has led to improvements in China itself. It still faces large problems domestically, and many aspects of the regime are unpleasant, particularly in suppression of minorities of thought and ethnicity. Then again, it seems that that is now increasingly the way of the West – plurality is being replaced by monoculture and authoritarianism.
It may not be the greatest civilization to have flowered on earth, but it does look as though it will dominate this century.
July 1, 2021
Mark, your comment is absolutely spot on.
China is paying lip service to climate change, carrying out a rapid switch to electric cars because it enables the economies of scale necessary to outsell European manufacturers in their home markets, while continuing to build coal fired power stations to make use of cheap fuel which they have in abundance.
The West should not be helping China fund its current path towards economic and military domination by allowing their enormous trade surpluses to grow unchecked.
You are quite right to suggest that Western Governments are going to destroy their economies and bankrupt their Countries because of their slavish devotion to the green crap agenda. Even the most superficial examination shows clearly that we can’t possibly afford it.
June 30, 2021
Dear Sir,
You seem to be using China as a reason not to have State control over our Utilities and Transport.
We get our Electricity from a State controlled supplier EDF. Your default position seems to be that everything state controlled is more costly to the tax payer and inefficient. The Tax Payer had to bail out the Private controlled Banks. So much for Capitalism. Globalisation does not seem a good idea now. A few get very rich and the rest get poorer/out of a job.
State owned is OK as long as the Politicians are kept at bay š
June 30, 2021
Communism isn’t completely evil (just as ‘Capitalism’ isn’t completely good either … to say the least). For example, the element in Communism that involves COOPERATION is essential for the economy in the West. If everyone competed against each other within a company, say, then you could never create companies such as Apple. Apple is dependent on all kinds of people coming together and working in close cooperation to get a high quality tech product out there.
Where companies are based more on sales / finance – on making money instead of making things – then you can have relatively less cooperation and more competition within a company. So companies based more on sales / finance – making money – are probably more extreme in their view of how ‘capitalism’ works. That’s fine for that type of company. But those principles don’t crossover to a company that makes (high quality) things – i.e. Apple – and the High Tech / Digital Sector in general.
We of course need a strong sector that makes money (finance) but we also a strong sector that makes (high quality) things as well. And I think our government has to focus a lot more on how to achieve that. So that we end up with more companies akin to Apple (and that have high productivity / high skills / high exports / high steady income stream and more reliable during times of economic instability as people always want their luxury phones in good times or bad) and less companies in the financial sector that had to be bailed out, from one degree to another, during the last financial crisis.
June 30, 2021
15 months of Mr Hancock being deliriously happy in lockdown.
How do we think that affected Freedom Day.
June 30, 2021
NLA
I have a gut feeling Matt Hancock was somehow set – up.
June 30, 2021
The success of China is down to the farsighted and determined leadership. They knew from Deng onwards that China and its people were to to be put first in all considerations and dealings.
Here in the UK our leadership was determined to put diversity, inclusivity and foreign interests first and that became the ideology. This put our country’s advancement last. They think that is a success. In comparison who would we say are the winners.
June 30, 2021
Of course John uses examples of his dislike of communism or socialism as this is his view, however we could take a leaf out of Chinas book and restrict the amount of children a couple are allowed to have . If we are over run now, can you imagine when the breeding population have all got their 6/7 children !
July 1, 2021
The birth rate for U.K. in 2020 was 11.433 births per 1000 people. In 2020, birth rate for China was 11.3 per 1,000 people. Do some investigation first.
July 2, 2021
2 points…Read properly comments and you will see the remark points to the future.Second point The areas of land in relation to each other greatly differ. Maths Mick!
June 30, 2021
In the sense of survival, it has done well. By any other measure it ahs done very badly.
It has been ably assisted by many useful idiots in the West – the “reset button”, allowing accession to WTO in the vague hope that China wold “see sense”.
Cutting off commercial ties isthe only way to deal with a nuclear power. Sadly, that means many innocent people being very unhappy for rather a long time. But China is no North Korea, keeping its population in the dark about the wider world – the population of China know all about the West and many would be up in arms, quite literally, if their new-found freedoms were stalled or reversed.
June 30, 2021
I see a lot of comments praising rises in GDP per person, and unless I missed it, none even mentioning the millions of Chinese – and Russian – people who died in the process of making them about a quarter as wealthy as the west.
China and Russia are example of what happens when you put the state in the hands of Utopians who simply do not care how many people they kill.
June 30, 2021
Sounds as though China’s communist rise to power and influence has mirrored the rise of the U.S.S.R. in many respects. By adopting some free enterprise they have done better than Communist Russia.
Things have changed though.
Nuclear warheads owned by USSR and USA had their own built in deterrent effect.
Unfortunately, deliberately manufactured and released viruses do NOT have the same ‘advantage’.
I feel China is a real threat now and can only hope someone, somewhere, can find a way to change that.
July 1, 2021
The west did not outsource it’s manufacturing to the USSR.That is the reason for China’s success vs the USSR where the policy was economic containment!
June 30, 2021
How do I think it [CCP] has done ?
Well Sir Redwood let me see….
It was’nt a threat until the American Incs & Corps went after the dirt cheap manufacturing costs, now the climate is buggered as a consequence of this greed for absolute maximum profit.
If that was’nt bad enough we have numerous lethal diseases spreading around the planet because of China, covid 19 is not the first to come from China and most likely won’t be the last.
Global virus pandemics
Nasty plastic shoddy goods
Global warming & climate pollution
Steel shortages
Threats to neighbouring democracies
July 1, 2021
To be fair, China started from a very low base. The opium trade, from which some British businessmen profited hugely, had something to do with that. Also, the Chinese were unfortunate in adopting Confucius as their favourite philosopher. He was, I understand, hostile to Western habits of thought.
In modern times, the real objection to China is that it is running a dirty economy, with at one time a new coal fired power station opening very week. The Chinese are also among the leading nations behind the resurgence of CFCs, preventing the hole in the ozone layer.
If we must host the COP26 climate change conference, we should at least take advantage of that status to table some firm proposals and set the agenda. For each of the world’s nations, compute how much extra it would cost to replace raw coal by decarbonised coal and CFCs by chemicals that don’t destroy the ozone layer, then impose tariffs on that nation’s exports so that it doesn’t gain. A radical change in WTO rules would be necessary.
July 1, 2021
The CCP knows fools when it sees them and this had enabled it to outwit and now control Western governments. It apparently took advantage of Western decadence which it helped to engineer. This comment by Michael Senger is very apt:
“Before lockdowns, I honestly thought our leaders at least tried to do the right thing. Now I see what Xi sees: the illusion of virtue and competence among our political class was simply conformity with easily-subvertible norms and institutions passed down from prior generations.
9:50 PM Ā· Jun 30, 2021Ā·T