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Comment by LiweiZ | Hacker News Reader

Can you elaborate on Japan's century? I'm a native Chinese holding opposite opinion from most of my peers back in China. So I think I know China enough. I'm curious on the Japan part. Most Chinese today are too stupid to take Japan seriously. And they only have the chance watching a balloon become bigger and bigger. I understand Japan has its own limitation, though. Thanks.

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He's referring to the fact that in the 70's and 80's everyone thought Japan was going to dominate but their economy wasn't (and still isn't) built on the most solid foundation. The Japanese were buying everything on debt, include Pebble Beach, but they didn't have much backing up those payments.

China has a ton of hidden debt that's masked by the government. No one knows how much is there. When added to their cultural and demographic problems I doubt we are seeing China's ascendancy.

Thanks for your reply. I was thinking he means something else. That topic has been very hot in China as well.(At least before 2012, AFAIK. I gave up reading those since then.) They have similar symptoms. But the foundations are way different. China is playing with its structure, moving some parts to make certain parts look good and strong. It's a matter of time the structure's balance crashes or there is simply nothing left in the structure any more. Well, most of us only need to focus on now than the future. Today's cash for some kills the future of rest of us.

in fact, in 70s and 80s, japan also played with real estate, which is "structure" in your words. it was crazier than china did today. FYI:http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%B3%A1%E6%...

Yes, I'm fully aware of that as well. Both of them basically learned from the same teacher. However, even given the approaches are 100% identical, different bodies get different outcomes. They have different metabolisms.

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