What Branko Milanovic thinks about China
Economist specialising in global income inequality; formerly lead economist in the World Bank research department, now at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Everything they publish, on ppll ↗
Branko Milanovic did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
4 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Branko Milanovic has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Our readingChinese writers' preoccupation with China alone is what limits China's soft power abroad.
Their wordsTo come to my key point: this self-concentration limits China’s ideological influence in the rest of the world and its soft power.
↗A self-absorbed giantbranko2f7.substack.com 1st of 4 in this piece
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Our readingChina's cultural and intellectual output to the world is far smaller than its economic weight.
Their wordsIt surely does not “produce” one quarter of world culture or intellectual activity (if the latter is defined as influential books, of fiction and non-fiction, politics, history; films, plastic arts, music, theater etc.)
↗A self-absorbed giantbranko2f7.substack.com 2nd of 4 in this piece
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Our readingChina had more ideological influence in the world during the Cultural Revolution than it has today.
Their wordsParadoxically, China might have had more soft power when it followed self-destructive policies of Maoist Cultural Revolution.
↗A self-absorbed giantbranko2f7.substack.com 3rd of 4 in this piece
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Their wordsChina’s tremendous success had not resulted in a blueprint that could be followed from Afghanistan to Zambia on how to become rich in four decades.
↗A self-absorbed giantbranko2f7.substack.com 4th of 4 in this piece