As announced yesterday, today is China Day 🇨🇳 on Truth Matters.
Let me begin by addressing the human rights violations China is guilty of, because those wanting to take issue with my position and observations will no doubt attempt to deflect from the core need to address the part China will play in this game of 3D economic chess.
To be clear, I do not condone any breach of human rights and China has many questions to answer. Amnesty International report and this is before we talk about Tibet.
Please note, I am not an advocate or an apologist for the Chinese government. This is a purely economic assessment.
I also think western criticism of China should be viewed through the lens of them being quite happy to exploit cheap Chinese labor for decades paying little if any attention to human rights abuses, simply seeing them as the price of doing business.
America’s arrogance is typified by JD Vance’s statement on Friday,
"We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture"
This is the kind of message which perpetuates the perception that China is populated by poor peasants who work in sweat shops to produce the cheap goods Americans have consumed for decades.
This is both delusional and demonstrates why China looks set to become the largest economy in the world in the not too distant future. What I want to do is take the covers off a country that despite its human rights problems has done more to work towards poverty eradication than any other country on earth.
Over the last 4 decades it has lifted nearly 800 million people out of poverty. Poverty DOES still exist and further progress was slowed by slower growth following the COVID pandemic.
I’d like to open with this explanation of the Chinese economy. Keyu Jin is a Chinese economist. She’s currently associate professor of economics at the London School of Economics and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, specializing in international macroeconomics and the Chinese economy.Â
She is also the author of a book called The New China Playbook, which I have just finished. It’s a highly recommended read if you want to get a better understanding of the Chinese economy as it fits into a globalized world.
This and the posts to follow tie into a Substack I’ll be dropping later in the day.
