Honestly modern China in my lifetime has been a more benevolent world player than the US by orders of magnitude. Not perfect, obviously, but at least they haven’t been starting wars or electing fascists. I’m excited for this shift.
The reality is that if China stops supplying the world with stuff, we’re fucked
The entire world relies on China’s cheap and available “stuff”, and it encompasses everything
I think is more their engineering expertise than cheap manufacturing. Cheap manufacturing can be easily moved to other countries as is already happening in India and Vietnam among others. However China has big expertise in high tech/large scale manufacturing in many areas like electronics, batteries, EV’s,… that doesn’t move easily.
However for those engineering domains China also strongly relies on other countries. In our world you can’t do everything alone.
Global power doesn’t tend to be a peaceful transition though. If China does make a play to become the dominant force by then, it’s bad news for everyone living right now.
There are benefits China has that will go away as they transition, which could also cause them to stumble. No longer being considered a developing nation, any poverty will be 100% on them to fix, international agreements will expect them to contribute instead of receiving, emissions will be more heavily scrutinized. Other countries will not be a tolerant about the rampant IP theft and extreme protectionism of their domestic markets.
It’s hard to argue given their trajectory
The reality is that if China stops supplying the world with stuff, we’re fucked
The entire world relies on China’s cheap and available “stuff”, and it encompasses everything
They have economic power, they have soft political power and have been pumping money into Africa and the pacific
They have harder political power in Asia
The have enormous military power
They have abundant resources
They already have the world by the balls, but it’s unpleasant for most people to acknowledge it
Honestly modern China in my lifetime has been a more benevolent world player than the US by orders of magnitude. Not perfect, obviously, but at least they haven’t been starting wars or electing fascists. I’m excited for this shift.
The biggest issue I have with China is their suppression of freedom of speech.
Mostly agree, but;
I think is more their engineering expertise than cheap manufacturing. Cheap manufacturing can be easily moved to other countries as is already happening in India and Vietnam among others. However China has big expertise in high tech/large scale manufacturing in many areas like electronics, batteries, EV’s,… that doesn’t move easily.
However for those engineering domains China also strongly relies on other countries. In our world you can’t do everything alone.
They haven’t fought a war in 4 decades though.
Cheap as cheap price or cheap quality
Global power doesn’t tend to be a peaceful transition though. If China does make a play to become the dominant force by then, it’s bad news for everyone living right now.
There are benefits China has that will go away as they transition, which could also cause them to stumble. No longer being considered a developing nation, any poverty will be 100% on them to fix, international agreements will expect them to contribute instead of receiving, emissions will be more heavily scrutinized. Other countries will not be a tolerant about the rampant IP theft and extreme protectionism of their domestic markets.