The news (and pundits) frequently speak about how China is “eating the US’s lunch” when it comes to infrastructure builds, AI development, economic growth, manufacturing, military strength, cybersecurity, cyber hacking, quality of living and more. China’s progress is often used as a foil to critique US economic, business and social issues.
Why isn’t anyone other than me pointing out the obvious here —- How can you rely on the information being provided by China?
We know that China is governed by an authoritarian dictatorship that maintains tight control over its media, communications, speech of individuals and businesses.
We have numerous examples of this that are unquestionable:
- Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
- Clampdown on Hong Kong since it was handed back to China in 1997
- The Great Firewall
- Censorship of media, internet, social media, apps
- The imprisonment, silencing and disappearance of dissidents including public figures like Jack Ma, University Professors and journalists
- Forced labor, enslavement and punishment of Uyghurs
- Purposeful deception surrounding Covid origins, data and statistics
- Spying throughout the world
At best, when someone is using China as a superior example they might say, “Notwithstanding China’s use of forced labor…” or “…understanding that China maintains strict controls over its citizens…”
I’m not saying that China isn’t superior to the US in some or possibly all of these areas. In fact, I’m pretty confident they dominate manufacturing, logistics, worldwide consumer goods and related services based only own personal buying experience.
It’s reported that China dominates in many other areas ranging from rare earth mineral mining/processing to EVs to nuclear energy to home building. This seems likely given the US’s current pathetic progress (regress?) in the domains.
But how much? And why? And how do we know?
We don’t know.
So unless we have actual hands on reliable data sources let’s not pretend that we do.
It would be refreshing, for once, to hear someone report, “China says ABC. We don’t know if this is true. What we do know is XYZ based on this evidence.”
I suppose that doesn’t generate outrage as much as hyperbolic positioning and weak reporting. So I won’t look for this from the media. I’ll look for it in books.