The West Is Becoming More Like China
asia.nikkei.com
asia.nikkei.com
-D. Rockefeller
Source of the quote in 1973. The west knew far less about China in 1973 when it was opening up after decades of isolation than it does today.
I think it's a joke to pretend that China is some ideal to aspire to, but sadly, I think the West will have to use similar tactics to continue to compete.
I believe a big part of China's current strength is by actively exploiting the weaknesses of Capitalism. For a long time, they've exploited the race-to-the-bottom of pricing, and they've gotten rich from it, partially through the sacrifice of their people.
Now that China has that new-found wealth (the country and the people), they are using that wealth to exploit Capitalism in a different way. Since Capitalism is inherently less directed and "top-down", now they're able to manipulate industries by being a big buyer instead. This is inherently part of Capitalism, but since the Chinese government has a more direct control of their economy, they're able to leverage a huge amount of economic power in a more directed fashion.
You want to sell that product here? Well, you're going to have to do it our way. Western governments will have to do the same, putting restrictions on what compromises Western companies are allowed to make, and putting restrictions on Chinese products as well.
Is it because my comment isn't pro-authoritarian/totalitarian?
I suspect free people (consumers) see creepy stuff like cyber-dystopian Uighur genocide and when given the chance will go full behind whatever opportunity they have to say “screw you China.”
The information asymmetry is massive that I don't think this tracks reality. Many people just tune out news, others never notice "made in China" stickers, and, what I would suspect to be your average consumer, likely just wants the cheapest toaster.
Furthermore, as the Chinese consumer base is more heavily catered to and grows in wealth, companies are going to ditch the current consumer of last resort and further focus their strategies in China.
Do you know about The Great Chinese Famine due to The Great Leap Forward (Backward) under Mao?
Between 18 million and 45 million starved to death due to failings of centrally planned economy. The single biggest man made disaster in the whole of humanity history.
The today success of China can be traced to Deng Xiaoping opening of the country and the free market reforms the so called socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Bullocks. He was a rich dude who didn't know dick about what was happening in China. At the time the CCP was recovering from the horrible starvation of the Great Leap Forward, and the over-the-top excesses, murders, and repression of the Cultural Revolution.
That quote is a rich dude talking out his ass about shit he didn't know.
> That quote is a rich dude talking out his ass about shit he didn't know.
He knew it very well, but still chose to lie.
I don't think the guys was that much of a complete idiot. This is pretty much like how the current American establishment tries to sell Americans the rationale for its bizarre alliance with the Saudi tinpot kingdom.
And it is also completely no wonder how Saudis started to get into trouble with USA the moment they started to close the door on American money.
For the short period of time (1.5 century) we were in this state where masses were educated well enough to demand political rights for themselves, and elittes didn't have the means to fully control them, so the compromise called "democracy" was made.
Nowadays, with technical advances in many areas, like online banking, smartphones, social media, AI it again becomes possible for elittes to excercise total control over average citizen, therefore mankind will soon revert to it's natural, totalitarian state.
Ancient Greece: Phalanx, requires groups of equal men to stand and fight in formation without breaking. Equipment and training was relatively even. The rich could afford better armor, but that wouldn't turn them into a super soldier.
Medieval: Mounted cavalry or mounted archers. Expensive to maintain a war horse and equipment, years of training required. But a mounted knight was extremely difficult to kill for groups of peasant infantry and the nobility could dominate the battlefield.
Industrial: Once again, large numbers of men wielding cheap firearms with much less training required than horseback combat. America being founded as a democracy probably had a lot to do with recruiting as many militiamen as possible rather than focusing on the interests of a highly trained military elite. One soldier, one vote reflects how much an individual soldier contributes on the battlefield during a time that spanned from musket lines to WW2.
Today: Highly specialized militaries, numbers aren't as important as technology. Based on how democracy has advanced or retreated with the importance of an individual on the battlefield regardless of his wealth or experience, as the scale tips back towards a highly trained military class using expensive weaponry, expect democracy to retreat as the few wield military power over the many.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/10/yuval-n...
In contrast to historical elite government or totalitarian states the party in China is very much accountable to the population and its well-being. The justification for their continued existence is rising the standards of living and successfully managing society, which renders comparisons to pre-democratic times moot.
It is a "justification" but since failing to do it does not come with any penalties there is no actual accountability. Mao starved 50 million of his comrades by mismanaging society and outright killed a few million more being paranoid -- and they didn't kick him and his cronies to the curb, instead they venerate him like a god and give his friends' grandchildren sinecures.
The fact that China lagging decades behind South Korea or Taiwan for 50 years didn't get the CCP ousted tells you how thin the veneer of "accountability for rising living standards" is, and how much the party actually rules with an iron fist.
And yes, the CCP is effectively unoustable but the CCP is the government, not just a Western style party, it's a complex governing body. For factions and individuals within the party there absolutely is an incentive to perform, and the party had countless of purges due to unrest.
Don't forget that Xi himself was sent to the countryside under the program of the same name after his father was thrown into prison. The party isn't going to go away, but the authorities in it absolutely are subject to scrutiny. Also Taiwan of course was subject to one party rule until the 90s and not a democratic nation either, and neither was South Korea under Park Chung Hee. Economic development in all three countries did not take place under democratic government.
So the death-chamber is well-decorated. A step up.
Societies are massive, complex, ephemeral things. You may as well appeal that anarchism is mankind's natural state and that soon all governments will cease to exist.
My prediction is that in the near term western countries especially the U.S. evolve (devolve?) into corporate fiefdoms, the pretense of democracy will still be alive but they will just be lobbyists for massive conglomerates like in cyberpunk novels (are we already there?).
I think we will eventually as a whole of humanity go to a better system of governance but none of us will be around for it, first we human beings need to have some global catastrophes to humble us into some collective wisdom.
A report released by the Senate Intelligence Committee that just came out today clearly demonstrated that Trump received extensive and unprecedented levels of help from the Russians to get into office.
The Chinese are walking, talking examples of the book 1984 -- but that doesn't mean Russia shouldn't be focused on either.