Completely agree. Also it's not really "stolen expertise" as wetern companies and capitalist countries given it away willingly in exchange for cheap manufacturing. They just never expected China to take advantage of it to compete on a global market.

I mostly agree however you are showing some serious racism when you say they "stole" anything. Do typu really believe the people that invented gun powder cannot innovate?

A lot of Americans still think of China as the place to make cheap goods, but their manufacturing sector has benefited from decades of stolen expertise.

I listened to a podcast (Dithering; it’s subscription based) talking about a book about Apple’s manufacturing operations in China. The distinction was that other companies guarded because their techniques would be stolen, whereas Apple focused on “we’re gonna teach you to do this,” which then proliferated to other companies. We wouldn’t have semi-affordable (depending on your situation) iPhones otherwise. They be impossible to build at scale. Really eye opening.

The ep was the second one last week, if you wanna listen.

The biggest problem with China is that they are Authoritarian.

Soft power yes, military power not yet I'd say

China has proven itself able to change drastically and quickly. High speed rail and renewable energy. Both massive undertakings tackling massive problems for China and both done far faster and on a much larger scale than anywhere else. If there's one country I actually trust to be proactive about securing its future, it's China. I'll take the wait and see approach to the supposed imminent demographic collapse

The question is, will they decline more than their competitors? Right now i think the US will decline a lot more a lot faster. And Russia will likely not even be around.

Amazing to see people in 2025 who still believe in this nonsense.

structural issues like command and control policies

Planned economics is precisely the reason why China has grown faster than India and become so dominant. Because they can control their economy for long-term human needs instead of putting everything into finance like the west.

the dictator

Anyone who still thinks Xi is a dictator despite the very strong collective and decentralised governance of China doesn't know enough about the country to pass an elementary school civics test.

The whole reason the property market bubble happened was because the Chinese government is way too decentralised. Local governments bet all in on property values as a way to boost tax revenue (land taxes are their main source of income). The central government should have stepped in way sooner, but that would have required centralising the Chinese tax base significantly, a tough thing to do because it would also require centralising public services. Not only would that require buy in from the vast number of local representatives and the national people's congress, but it would have also interfered with the poverty alleviation campaign.

an economy built on unnecessary public spending

Pure neoliberal cope. I hope you are enjoying your deindustrialised austerity economy.

an educational system which continues to emphasise blind obedience over individualism

This is hilarious coming from westerners who have naught an original thought, only memes.

lmfao

It's already called an electrostate and they'll supplant the old petrostates.

That's true, but the time between rise and fall takes a while. From the looks of things, the US empire is in the process of falling, which would clear the way for China to take over the top spot. This may change depending on how things go, but if China can grab that spot then it'll take a while for their turn to fall.

Nobody currently alive will live to see it

I saw that book pass by on the Daily Show:

Patrick McGee - Apple In China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company