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Posted on 05/23/2025 9:28:55 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
China is the original riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. A country striving for modernity but feudal in its treatment of its citizens, Beijing's economic identity is a combination of Communist orthodoxy and crony capitalism. As you might expect, the two don't work well together.
On the outside of the riddle, China is booming, the people are subservient and happy, and the government is looking to the future with confidence. This is the picture the Chinese Communists paint for the world to see. The reality is much different.
China is being crushed by debt, has become dependent on high levels of debt, and has created a bubble in several sectors, like housing and household goods.
One noted Chinese economist said in 2019, “Basically, China’s economy is all built on speculation and everything is over-leveraged.” He was proved right when the massive overbuilding of housing caused the market to collapse in 2021.
"As a result, tens of millions of apartments have no residents, millions have been sold but not finished, and those that are inhabited are declining in value," writes Wessie du Toit in Persuasion.
Consumer spending in China is its Achilles' heel. China makes more than enough goods to dominate world markets, but the 1.2 billion Chinese are lagging in how they spend their money.
The country is so dominant when it comes to making and building things because the state has structured the economy to prioritize massive investments in housing, infrastructure, and manufacturing. Many Chinese firms are effectively subsidized to one degree or another, and frequently produce more than China or the world wants to buy. The nation’s warehouses bulge with unsold stock, its urban lots with abandoned cars and share bikes, all casualties of ill-conceived government schemes...
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
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NOTICE WHAT’s HOLDING THE COUNTRY DOWN ...
Debt is the silent killer, and the Chinese are careening toward a massive debt bomb. Du Toit reports that “government sector debt, including local government financing vehicles and associated funds, stood at 124% of GDP in 2024, while China’s total debt was measured at 312% of GDP.”
By contrast, U.S. debt is at 125% of GDP. It, too, is climbing precipitously and could rival China if we don’t get a handle on government spending.
China is a house of smoke and mirrors. Almost nothing their official news sources is true, but outsiders accept it as gospel.
CC
Talking about the Chicoms and using any regular economic vocabulary or phraseology is just ridiculous. There is no real private property. Anything can be taken from anyone at any time. They will take a kidney if they “need” it. They may leave you alive with your one kidney. They may just harvest other organs.
There are no intellectual property rights, other than everything belongs to the Chicoms.
All of the human beings in China are commodities to the Chicoms. If they desire to close off an apartment building, a small town, or an entire city, no one can argue. Well, no one can argue successfully.
Just ask Hong Kong.
What a goof. China is a communist dictatorship. Nothing mentioned in this article is of real importance, except for the Chicom’s ability to buy foreign resources. If all those Chinese bond holders get screwed, the CCP doesn’t care. If all those empty apartment buildings fall down, they don’t care. If a hundred million people die, they don’t care.
They can mine enough gold and make enough consumer goods to get by.
In a lot of ways I agree with this article.
Except that I don’t think China is still Communists. I’m
not sure what I’d call it. And certainly the leadership there would disagree with me.
There is no universal health care, a regulated market economy ratherthan a command one. There is private property and communes were abolished. While still some state owned enterprises most jobs are with private employers. It does not appear that wages are controlled any more than the US or Europe.
But the government does control information with an iron hand and in the name of “A harmonious society” control and repress dissenting opinions. It controls the press and publishing. There are some restrictions on religious activities.
I think the PRC has, without realizing it, transitioned from Communists into some sort of secular dictatorship.
None of means China is either more or less of a threat.
They are a variation of fascism. Social benefits are nothing more than the softsell to convince people to give up their rights and the social benefits disappear.
And now its strting to come out how they have grossly doctored (overexaggerated) their population numbers.
I’ve been hearing these predictions for years - not saying it’s not true - but I’ll feel much better when I see some actual collapse.
I know what to call it. Government and big business are in bed together with each doing the other's bidding. That's the textbook definition of fascism.
But they have nukes.
Millions of empty apartments?
So why do they still flood into the US?
Northern California in particular.
Maybe…just maybe…their “asylum “ claims are BS?
Centralized economies always collapse, just like the USSR.
China’s government is a heavily armed Syndicated Criminal Enterprise and almost everything Westerners see about China is government manipulated propaganda.
“I’ve been hearing these predictions for years - not saying it’s not true - but I’ll feel much better when I see some actual collapse.”
Tell me about it. The Leftists were convinced that the Russian economy was ‘on the edge’ and that they could crash it with ‘sanctions’. Well, they’re now on their 17th ROUND of ‘sanctions’ and the only economies crashing are their own (particularly in Europe), thanks to their boycott of Russian energy.
So, they definitely have a credibility problem when it comes to their ability to crash large economies. Maybe China will crash before we do...but we’ve got nothing to write home about either when it comes to debt.
Exactly...and this is the kind of crap that gets us into messes that we may soon not get out of so easily.
The asylum laws can be manipulated. Throw a rock at a cop before you defect. Does that make you a refugee from oppression?
Didn’t they recently stop publishing their economic data (source last week’s Epoch Times opinion section)?
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