this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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A top economist has joined the growing list of China's elite to have disappeared from public life after criticizing Xi Jinping, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Zhu Hengpeng served as deputy director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for around a decade.

CASS is a state research think tank that reports directly to China's cabinet. Chen Daoyin, a former associate professor at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, described it as a "body to formulate party ideology to support the leadership."

According to the Journal, the 55-year-old disappeared shortly after remarking on China's sluggish economy and criticizing Xi's leadership in a private group on WeChat.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Who thinks Chinese economy is bad now??

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

92 upvotes would suggest a lot of people.

But everything you could say about China rings just as true in Europe, in Japan and Korea, in India, in Russia...

Global populations are heading for a heavy sag, but westerners only know how to heckle the Evil Foreigners.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Funny because I'm European, and the GDP per capita levels of most EU countries are at 2008 levels.

As for a population pyramid, China will face the same problem as other countries as you say, possibly more magnified.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

EU countries are filling up with war and climate refugees. And... 2008 is one hell of a year to pick as your benchmark.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, blame the immigrants. Very .world thing to do lol. Taking Germany, for example, according to Wikipedia, 0.17% population growth per year between 2010 and 2020 doesn't seem too great for me, compared to China's yearly >4% GDP growth for example they'd reduce per-capita growths by an insignificant amount. I'm European myself, and I can tell you that the lack of GDP per capita growth between 2008 and 2024 isn't due to population reasons either, and I'm guessing it's the same for the bigger EU economies like France,Italy and Spain but feel free to correct me otherwise.

2008 as my benchmark is exactly my point: the European economy has only now economically recovered from the effects of its own self-imposed policy of austerity and deprivation of worker rights and welfare, without having restored said rights or welfare to pre-2008 levels. And we see countries like the UK under "labor" administration falling to the same policy again as soon as they enter the government. In the meanwhile, without falling into such policy (although without many significant victories for welfare and labor AFAIK), China has grown its per-capita GDP threefold since 2008.

So no, I don't think "Chinese economy looks bad", I wish my European country's economy would mimic a fraction of the Chinese growth actually

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I'm not sure why you're getting downvoted that much

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Lots of people, especially the Chinese. The sentiment about work, investment, economic prospects, consumption are all quite bad. The central bank is cutting rates. Just today the government dipped their toes into the helicopter money game. The only thing keeping the party going is exports

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

especially the Chinese

Source?

The sentiment about work, investment, economic prospects, consumption are all quite bad

Source?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/consumer-confidence https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-august-2024-economy-record-export-growth-amid-domestic-challenges/ https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/09/09/europes-luxury-goods-market-set-to-feel-the-pinch-as-china-growth-weakens https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/analysis-chinas-monetary-volleys-miss-key-threat-to-economic-growth/ar-AA1r9V9Q

Plus anecdotal stories from people I know that traveled to China in the past few months.

Basically, the post-COVID recovery was already slower than expected. Then the property sector all but halted. People are stuck with gig work and temporary contracts.

Why do you imagine the government is doling out money for the first time if everything is peachy?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

ROFL, the consumer index that your first source portrays, is still twice that of Canada at 86 points Vs 45, and Germany's consumer index is -15 points... It's on par with Australia and Spain, so what does that tell you?

The rest aren't really indicators of Chinese people seeing the economy struggling aren't they? They're just western reports predicting the imminent collapse of the Chinese economy... as they've been doing for the past 20 years

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I’m not going to do your homework for you. Suffice is to say China is still an emerging market and all indicators aside from exports are unusually low for the kind of economy China is. I don’t know what kind of point you’re trying to make because you seem to be skirting the issue. None of the pieces I linked proclaim China is about to collapse, only pointing out the challenges. Again: what the hell is your point?