Propaganda, Environment & Society
One week's news
Propaganda
The Times’ Ian Williams recycles the "Chinese ghost towns" narrative while trashing the economy. His proof? A picture of an unfinished building in Huai'an captioned, A building frenzy has left China littered with ghost cities stuffed with empty or incomplete homes like these in Huai’an, Jiangsu Province. Is it true though? I decided to investigate and contacted a Jiangsu colleague. He was kind enough to get out his drone and took some pictures, which I think can speak for themselves. The colleague tells me that even with the original Getty picture, construction was clearly going smoothly—just look at how many cranes are in place. I'm told the building is a mall with an investment of 1.5 bln yuan. It started construction in Sept. and is expected to be completed in 2025. In fact, they are planning a roof-capping ceremony soon. Once completed, it's expected to generate 200 mln yuan/yr in tax and create 4k jobs. In a way, although Mr. Williams wanted to demonstrate an economy in trouble, he chose a picture that signaled the opposite. Ironic.
Environment
The national carbon emissions market celebrated its third anniversary on Tuesday, having handled 500 million tons of CO2 quotas worth $3.7 billion), lifting prices of CO2/ton from 40 yuan to 90 yuan now, and incentivized thermal power generators to enhance energy conservation and emissions control.
Education spending was $906 billion in 2023, up 5.3% YoY. Spending on higher education saw the fastest year-on-year growth in 2023, rising 7.6%. Kindergartens saw the fastest per student expenditure growth, 8.8%.
Society
The average Chinese now eats more protein than the average American–and lives longer: UN says China reached the milestone in 2021.
Don't be fooled. China's $13,000 per capita income beats the U.S's $50,000. I live in
a big Chinese city on a salary of $1500 per month. My nice, 1000 sq ft. apt rent is $350/month (90% of households own their home and have zero property tax. 75% are mortgage-free). My budget for food, healthcare and transportation is $700, leaving me $450 savings. If you live in a big US city, your salary is $4500 per month. Your 1000 sq ft apt rent is $2000 per month. If you own your home you pay $300 - $1000/mo property taxes. Your budget for food, healthcare and transportation is $3000 leaving $500 to add to your credit card balance.
I looked up ‘democracy’ and ‘capitalism’ in China's high school political science textbook, General Knowledge About National and International Organizations:
The state is the organ of political power that allows the economically dominant class to exercise class rule. Because of the nature of the state, all states are dictatorships of some classes over others. As a national system, Democracy's nature is to carry out state functions within the purview of the ruling class and in line with the majority's will. As a result, Democracy has a distinct class nature and serves the ruling class. Democracy and dictatorship are inextricably linked and embody the nature of the state. Any state implementing a democratic system must incorporate Democracy for some economic classes while imposing dictatorship on others. Democracy develops and improves through time. Capitalist countries have spent hundreds of years developing democratic political systems that are relatively complete and mature. However, due to the nature of their nations, they cannot represent the interests and wills of the vast majority of people. A socialist country's democratic political system reflects that the people are its masters. Socialist countries, on the other hand, have existed for less than a century. To reach their full potential, they must draw wisdom from the positive experiences of human political civilization and engage in a never-ending cycle of discovery, reform, and self-improvement. In more developed capitalist countries, the bourgeoisie uses the power of money to disguise the class nature of their country in the appearance of Democracy, and democratic republics serve as the finest political shell for them to run the country and preserve bourgeois dominance effectively. Some developing countries adopt the democratic republic model of established capitalist countries. Still, because it is incompatible with their national realities, they cannot guarantee their people's economic and political rights or successfully perform state functions. Regimes frequently shift, yet civil unrest persists.
China combines national health (supported by the govt), private health insurance (mandatory contribution by employee/employer), and a form of part private and govt., for those living in urban areas and unemployed (they contribute to a govt., insurance program and the govt., contributes the balance). There is no such thing as a secure national universal healthcare program because people still pay a small out of pocket fee. These expenses to, say, go to a specialist or GP for out of pocket expenses, are $1-$10 per visit, a hospital out of pocket expense regardless of duration and surgery would be $1000. Even though this could seem exorbitant for a rural worker, there are numerous programs and assistance by the local provincial govt. Private healthcare is mandatory for urban workers and they contribute only about 2℅ of their salary and the employer contributes about 6℅. This provides full coverage with very minor out of pocket expenses. For unemployed urbanites must contribute to a govt., healthcare program, the amount is negligible and the local govt., contributes the balance, with very small out of pocket expenses. The population doesn't need to worry about going bankrupt or lacking funds for healthcare should they have a medical emergency, unlike the US.
Ant Group’s partner insurers reported $1.93 billion in claims via its platform in H1, up 30% YoY, as users increasingly choose the online insurance brokerage platform thanks to its convenience. With more than 1 billion users on the platform, Alipay’s in-app tool has expanded from e-commerce-related shopping rebates when launched in 2013 to providing a range of insurance offerings including health and travel coverage. It has partnered with 90 insurance companies in China to offer more than 1,000 products, Ant Insurance said in a press release. The Alibaba-affiliated fintech company is also using ChatGPT-like tech to power its insurance services, with AI assisting users in choosing insurance products and streamlining the claims process.
Xi Explains why the Third Plenum was necessary: “Unbalanced and inadequate development remains a pronounced problem in promoting China’s high-quality development”. For example,
the market system still needs improvement;
the market itself is not adequately developed;
the relationship between the government and the market needs to be further straightened out;
our innovation capacity falls short of the requirements for high-quality development;
the industrial system, while large in size and extensive in scope, is not yet strong or sophisticated enough;
the over-reliance on key and core technologies controlled by others has not been fundamentally changed;
the foundations of agriculture need to be further strengthened;
wide gaps persist in development and income distribution between urban and rural areas and between regions; and
weak links remain in improving the people’s wellbeing and protecting the ecological environment. In essence, all of these challenges reflect the evolution of the principal contradiction in Chinese society and are the result of ongoing development. It is essential that they are addressed by further deepening reform comprehensively on an institutional basis.”
Reading
The Inevitability of Sino-Futurism, by Andrew Anglin.