korrents · piece

2021 letter

Dan Wang · 1 Jan 2022

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China's cultural and intellectual output to the world is far smaller than its economic weight.

Their wordsNever has any economy grown so much while producing so few cultural exports.

Also said by Branko Milanovic

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
China's cultural and intellectual output to the world is far smaller than its economic weight.

Their wordsNever has any economy grown so much while producing so few cultural exports.
Our reading
China's central government has a stronger record of pulling off politically difficult reforms than any other developing country.

Their wordsIt has displayed a stronger record of reform than any other developing country, as the leadership keeps pulling off politically-difficult tasks: shrinking the state sector, re-orienting the economy towards export-led growth after WTO accession, and so on.
Our reading
Beijing diagnosed the dangers of financialization earlier than the United States did.

Their wordsBeijing diagnosed the problems with financialization earlier than the US, where the problem is now endemic.
Our reading
Beijing deliberately rejects comparative advantage and targets a high level of manufacturing output for its own sake.
Mental modelSpecialise and trade

Their wordsThe leadership is targeting a high level of manufacturing output, rejecting the notion of comparative advantage.
Our reading
America's pursuit of efficiency left it with neither the factories to make more goods nor the logistics to import them.

Their wordsThe US focus on efficiency has revealed the brittleness of its economy, which has neither the manufacturing capability to scale up domestic production of goods nor the logistics capacity to handle greater imports.

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