The Chinese economy is set to overtake that of the United States
sooner than previously anticipated because China has so far weathered the
coronavirus pandemic better than the U.S. or other Western nations, according
to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Yeah, well, it’s China’s
virus, and it loosed it on the rest of the world, so that shouldn’t be
surprising.
The
world’s two largest economies are on track to trade places, in dollar terms, in 2028, five years earlier than
expected just one year ago, the CEBR said recently.
Chinese
President Xi Jinping recently claimed that it was “entirely possible” for his
economy to double in size by 2035 under his government’s new Five-Year Plan,
which aims to have the erstwhile Middle Kingdom achieve the glorious (if nebulous)
sobriquet “modern socialism” in 15 years.
Not
to rain on Xi’s Red Parade, but 2035 is fifteen years away, not five.
And Confucius say, “Those who can’t count shouldn’t count on anything.” At
least I think he did.
The
CEBR report, which features some B.S., notes that China has recovered swiftly
from the effects of the pandemic, as reported by the Chinese government, and
suggests that Western economies look to Asia for guidance. It subtly, but snarkily
and without context, stated: “Typically, we compare ourselves with other
Western economies and miss out on what often is best practice, especially in
the rapidly growing economies in Asia.”
Well,
the U.S. is already imitating China in forcefully stripping most of its
citizens’ of their freedoms, so I guess all that it has left to do is to set a
killer virus loose on the rest of the world and reap the comparative economic
benefits.
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