I try to read all viewpoints when it comes to China and this YouTube channel contains many videos you might find interesting. The CCP has created a lot of problems and this video is legitimate (have seen editorials in Asian newspapers about their "social security" crisis).
It is worth watching as are many of the videos on this YouTube channel. The recent education (in China) one was also very interesting and I will link it if you wish to view it.
There is much more "turmoil" in China than many of us here in the US know and consider how hard it is to get negative news out of China. This video explains how the CCP has robbed the Chinese people (much like our govt) when it comes to pensions. They have to collect "benefits" for 17 years to even get back the principle that they paid in while working according to the video.
Is China unraveling? As a layperson who tries to follow events in China it truly seems like they are in worse shape than we are.
Video on "higher education" and the lack of jobs for college graduates. Also talks about the education caste system that has developed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkKje9TTBFY
I have no affiliation with this channel or those who produce it but its interesting.
460,000 companies close down, 800 million people in debt, China’s 2023 economic has no way out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTAhC-ZLWMw
Perhaps all of this makes war with Taiwan more likely given that the CCP has a debt bubble, the entire nation has a real estate bubble, AND their economy is in turmoil. I think they did even MORE damage to their economy than we did to ours during Covid. Interesting video.
For what its worth - IF the Chinese invaded Taiwan and the “West” cuts off ties along with sanctions I don’t see how China would survive in its current form outside of a thoroughly despotic regime. Their economy is NOT in good shape now and without exports and investment from the West it will quickly collapse in my opinion.
Which path will Xi choose and will their “Politburo” (primarily consisting of oligarchs with major business”) allow him to take such a risk that will lead to their economic ruin?
Thanks for the summary. I can’t stand when someone just post a video link with “you have to see this” or such.
About 25 years ago, they designed and implemented a system very similar to the USA’s social security and medicare system
Thus, it is having the exact same “ponzi-scheme” problems, but worse - its system has not been running as long, while its population is aging faster than the USA’s, and they can’t inflate away their debt as much as the USA can.
>>The recent education (in China) one was also very interesting
Would be interested in that link. Thanks.
That was quite interesting. I especially liked the “lecture” one woman laid on the police sent to harass her for protesting; she ate their lunch via reasned argument they all knew was correct.
The man with the gold always makes the rules, or thinks they should. The CCP has evidently gave workers to believe that they actually have “personal property” (their own wages) in social insurance accounts. Then the CCP decides to raid the notional accounts people considered to contain their own money. Nothing pisses people off like government stealing their cash. Sort of like our own “socal security lock box” that obviously has a big old hole in it.
Here is a very brief summary of China’s “5 social security” schemes.
The medical part is something like an American “health care savings account” whereby individuals have the ability to spend on their own specific health care needs.
But it seems local governments have raided the funds, ostensibly to pay for the huge costs of COVID testing and lockdowns.
https://www.hrone.com/blog/guide-chinas-social-security-system-pays/
Zeihan is all over the geopolitical map in this interview, China included.
Peter Zeihan: China, Food Supply Chains, Energy, Ukraine & The Future of Humanity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9zU4cBCf1U
According to communist dogma, the health is an entitlement and should be all provided free of charge to everybody!
Also the communists should take care about the old.
Obviously the CCP is not following any communist dogmas.
So what is keeping CCP in charge?
Only force!
——unraveling? -—
I will suggest unraveled.
The reason for the Chinese GDP growth was unregulated growth and investment. The whole economy depended on jobs created by construction and the materials. The local governments didn’t collect anywhere near adequate taxes and depended on revenue from the sale of land. banks loaned money to everybody for the same projects.
People paid cash down and took mortgages on apartments under construction. They put their savings into down payments. When developers ran out of money, the people were left hith a deed on a project that would never be completed.
Banks are failing. Mortgage payments stopped. People can’t with draw their deposits. Wages are not being paid for a year or more. Young people are increasingly lying flat. Unemployment grows and grows and grows.
There is an expression tofu drang that describes shoddy buildings made of tofu. The concept of tofu drang is being understood by nations paying off debt for tofu drang infrastructure built by China. They are not paying the Chinese banks that are actually the CCP in mufti
I like this guy’s channel. He is South Aftican and used to live there and is very outspoken on China.
https://m.youtube.com/@serpentza/videos
I’m going there next week, for the first time in three years.
I’ll let you know what I learn
You might find Louis-Vincent Gave interesting:
“The reality is you get tens of thousands of protests in China, every year. They’re not covered by the Western media, because they’re about local issues about polluted water or local authorities who stole land or whatever else. And the modus operandi of the Chinese government is to give in, they blame middle management, they blame the local mayor, they blame that local party secretary, they fire them, or just move them somewhere else. And they give to the demonstrators whatever the demonstrators want.”
Text version (paraphrase of video):
https://unherd.com/thepost/louis-vincent-gave-the-truth-about-chinas-reopening/
Video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J10eXxepzIE
Video from last year (bear in mind this was before winter came and he had no way of knowing it would be unusually mild for Europe, also before we blew up the Nord Stream pipelines):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EtqJrbTygFs
China Insights is pretty good.
bttt
Try this. Long but very good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTMEf8WIE6c&list=PLmsTH1JoPgu-kigzLBIoF-Xv_LfXReRrD&index=22&t=2827s