Is Xi Jinping An Imbecile?
There were precious few surprises on offer in Li Qiang's first annual work report, delivered Tuesday before a crowd of automatons gathered in the Great Hall of the People.
China's growth target (about 5%) is either ambitious or not depending on who you ask. It doesn't much matter: Barring some manner of acute crisis, Beijing will say they hit it. That's not a joke. I mean, it's a joke in the sense that most of what comes out of China's statistics bureau can't be taken seriously, but I'm not kid
TLDR: Is Xi an imbecile? – Yes.
Now to the issue at hand, what solution does China have economically to boost demand?
From what I hear on the ground people are out of money. Traditionally local governments depend on land sales to fund themselves, now some local government employees are not being paid their salaries due to effectively bankrupt local government due to debt burden.
Yep. Xi is a dolt, but a very insecure one. Egomaniac w/ an insecurity complex, a phrase some readers may have seen in another context.
I’m sure you’re aware, and many/most readers on this site know, Xi’s owes his rise to power to political favoritism. He is one of the “princelings” entitled to positions of power, in contrast to at least some of China’s prior upper level leaders (e.g., Li Keqiang) who were well-educated and cared (at least somewhat) about the people.
Xi may attack Taiwan to minimize attention to his failures, but it’s only a matter of time before a bloody revolt led by the people challenges Xi or a rival faction assassinates Xi and his band of idiots and thugs. Unfortunately, time is not on the side of the Chinese or Taiwanese people.
Wasn’t the “peaceful” dropped from “reunification” in some recent official CCP speech or statement? I think I read that but can’t find the reference now.
I think what we have here is “long Covid with Chinese characteristics.”
I haven’t dabbled in any AI image generators, but would love to have a look at Xi with a blonde combover and a 1/4 pound of orange bronzer on his face. Maybe the best thing for the Chinese economy (as well as its own and neighboring populations) is for someone to convince Xi to swap his soccer fandom for a time-consuming golfing compulsion.
Nice in your face article, that as you point out would land you in prison or worse if Xi could (and likely ignoring any national borders to do so, much like MBS or Putin).
The best-worst form of government ousts a dictator, even when they have a bad 8 years that leads to 2 tragic senseless wars and ruining the global economy. I wonder if Xi’s looking for a new record in how fast he can run his country into the ground; I feel bad for the hundreds of millions of people who are enslaved into that downward spiral (at least Russians could flee).
I don’t think Xi’s smart enough to become the alpha male of 1.4 billion people and suddenly turned into a cretin. More like he hit his head on the Peter Principle ceiling.
A wholly different decentralized and limited governance is needed, not merely a new boss. They have a negative wealth effect: their stocks and property values go down and their currency is loses value. And some their human capital, young people, are “lying flat” because they don’t see much hope for the future. A surveillance state corrodes the human psyche, and destroys initiative, motivation, and private enterprise.
Extreme skewing of income and wealth inequality is what brought Mao to power. Xi probably saw that reemerging in China when he cracked down on BABA and other billionaires.
He can also see the resulting swing towards right-wing populism in the west in recent years thanks to increasing inequality in our economic system. It must evoke memories of Chaing Kai Shek’s regime when Chaing’s cronies and his triad partners squeezed every penny (fen?) out of 99% of the population.
Maybe he has a different historical perspective versus those of us in the west who view shareholder returns as the sacrosanct societal goal.
I have thought that as well – Xi as Redistributionist In Chief – but his policies have so far been bad for China’s middle income (high unemployment, wage and benefit cuts, lost jobs, lost money in almost all kinds of savings vehicles plus any houses they won) and lower income (China’s peasants and migrant laborers don’t get much attention in Western media, but what I’ve found suggests they, too, have suffered from the economic slump while receiving no significant benefits). So if he is trying to redistribute wealth away from the rich, he’s so far not managing to direct that wealth to the not-rich – instead, wealth is simply evaporating.
“own” not “won”
JL – good points on the outcomes. Yet someone snarkier than I might ask if you were speaking of the PRC or the USA. That is scary.
The main article doesn’t celebrate shareholders, it laments that a war or crackdown is the strongman answer to internal unrest. Despite the US right wing propaganda that the current economy is terrible (as reflected in Republican answers in polls), the US economy is among the best in the world – so much so that legal and illegal immigration “is a problem”…
Now if your point is that the US should address the inequality chasm then you don’t have to speak in the 3rd person: it’s a real problem. Luckily we have a democracy where you can run for office or proclaim the problems you see as loud and wide as you want. But maybe that’s a poor historical precedent for the enlightened chinese people who only need an ever more vigilant state surveillance apparatus for their voices to be heard?
The proof is in the results. Thirty-plus years of data. Being able to complain matters little when non-economic issues drive voters.
But things will surely get better for folks on Main Street next year once we’ve carried out mass deportations and imposed draconian import taxes.
Anonemouse – do a web search for Trump & Insurrection Act. Your next president’s advisors have already done the groundwork to use the active military to quell anti-Trump demonstrations. So, enjoy your right to loudly proclaim the problems you see while you can.
Of course, we can count on the supreme court to step up and prevent it, right?
Thaere’s one headline Bloomberg won’t ripoff.
This is absolutely brilliant. Is there a way I can share this? Please advise.
A few months ago, I put in a trial feature. If you share the link to the article with someone who isn’t a subscriber, they can sign up for a limited trial to read.