Sunday, November 4, 2018

China Feels the Backlash

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, which thankfully still separates its opinions from its news stories, Michael Auslin, summarizes the forces moving against China in what appeared to be a smooth progression to world economic domination.  It now looks like some of those initiatives have been shown to be less than good economics to those dealing with the Central government.  Malaysia and Pakistan have finally decided the One Belt One Road initiative was a financial trap that lured countries in but wouldn't let them out of bad deals. 

He mentions the "heavy handed" approach by the government in labeling Taiwan as part of China, and failed to mention the number of countries talked into disparaging Taiwan's independence, often using economic incentives as the price of political beliefs. 

Questions are being raised about China's real economic growth.  "Doubts about the country’s official 6.7% economic growth are widespread, while its massive debt burden, estimated at 300% of gross domestic product, raises alarms, especially within the private and state-owned-enterprise sector." 

In the meantime, the camps grow for the largely Muslim population in the Northwest, surveillance dominates the state view of its citizens, and it seems unwilling to change any of its approaches to accommodate its own people. While those are signs of the stamping grounds of revolution, Auslin sees that as unlikely.  Still, short of revolution, there is quite a bit of dissent that can manifest itself all over the world.  That makes domination so much harder. 


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