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Boris Petrov's avatar

Thank you !! But there is a difference in -- RESULTS. Manufacturing didn't just move to China by itself -- it was enthusiastically exported to China in the name of profits...

Financial Times -- July 8, 2021:

“China’s emergence over the past four decades ranks as the biggest and longest-run economic boom in history. Its annual gross domestic product rose from a mere $191 B, or $195 per capita, in 1980 to $14.3 T, or $10,261 per capita, in 2019.

It has raised more than 770m people from poverty and transformed the Chinese economy into a high-tech powerhouse that is on course to eclipse America’s in size. This transformation is the landmark achievement of the Chinese Communist party, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on Thursday.”

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Stxbuck's avatar

China literally started at a baseline of famine still being a real worry in 1977 when Deng Xiaoping took over to their current growth. People want normal stuff-and if a billion people are held back from getting that and then let off the chain, of course growth is going to be off the charts spectacular. It’s like comparing the growth of a baby to that of a late teenager. All China’s authoritarian bs is just ultra-efficiency-human rights and freedoms be damned-it has nothing to do w/ economics. Deng Xiaoping saw the CCP as an efficient governing structure, not as an ideological organization per se.

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Matt330's avatar

They still have some Communist beliefs and policies, but their main philosophy is pragmatic authoritarian nationalism. Maybe they found what Sun Yat-sen was looking for all along, a world power united China? I am not a fan of the CCP, but I find them to be anything but stupid.

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Spartacus's avatar

Well, China also provided policy support. For instance, China set out to educate a wild surplus of engineers, and did so. This was done because of recognizing that engineering ability was the foundation of the real economy's wealth. Steve Jobs referenced that when he said, "Those jobs aren't coming back," meaning Apple manufacturing. The reason was simple. In China it was easy to find 30,000 engineers required to output a new product line. In the USA it was impossible. It wasn't just a matter of salaries. Those salaries, when amortized over huge production runs are not a big cost. The problem was he couldn't find them, and that meant products didn't happen, or they happened years later, which would make Apple a middle of the pack company.

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Boris Petrov's avatar

YES - thank you. Most of the "philosophers" on this site have little understanding of even basics on China -- beyond the standard war party propaganda..

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