alanjjohnstone
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Because if a source that is critical of China says something positive about the country it’s probably true.
If a source critical of China says something negative about the country it means it is a lie, is your logic, isn’t it?
Again like all other industrialised nations China issues optimistic projections
e.g.
Haikun Wang at Nanjing University in China thinks the shift to a more service-based economy means emissions could still peak within the next five years, ahead of the official “around 2030” target.
An update on the 2019 New Scientist appraisal
China’s official short-term goal remains for emissions to peak around 2030, which is unchanged since it was set six years ago in the run-up to the Paris climate summit.
“The short-term reality is China is still growing. It’s going to double the size of the economy, it’s still urbanising, energy demand is still increasing. There is still an imperative for growth,” says Michal Meidan at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in the UK.
China’s new five year-plan, approved last month, was also a “big disappointment” in terms of its carbon-intensity targets – a measure of emissions per unit of electricity generated – and continued coal power expansion, says Isabel Hilton of UK and China-based non-profit organisation China Dialogue.
I’m intrigued that you admit that a right-faction exists, perhaps you can identify it for me and indicate its influence.
If you consider what is most likely a Jesuit religious site (I am guessing and might be far off the mark) as a reliable source of information, why do you discount the many other stories it contains critical of the Chinese regime.
As for the Xi’s 10 points, over the years I have read fairly similar intentions from all manner of governments. Yours is a blind faith that Xi will succeed in carrying out his promises while all the previous futile attempts say otherwise.
I interpret the power outages as unintended consequences of the shift from coal power and actual evidence that market forces were determining production output.
But what China is experiencing is exactly the contradictory conditions many other nations such as India are facing to meet the Paris agreement. Profit versus planet. Again, it shows China is no exception to the laws of capital, despite its high State direction in the economy.
TS, better double-check your own sources. Having accused me of using the Guardian, you just cited a religious Christian liberty site.
“The unique feature of Bitter Winter was, and is, its network of correspondents in all Chinese provinces. At high risk for their security – some have been arrested – they report on what happens in China and how religions are treated or mistreated”
Whereas I referred to an official pronouncement of the Chinese government that it intends to narrow the inequality gap.
While the Brits lament no fuel, no truck-drivers and a host of other shortages, China faces its own problems.
China’s factory activity contracted in September for the first time since the pandemic took a grip in February 2020.
The figures showed that output fell thanks to a marked slowdown in high-energy consuming industries, such as plants that process metals and oil products… also highlighted a fall in new orders, employment and new export orders… its sprawling manufacturing sector hit by rising costs, production bottlenecks and electricity rationing…
the Russian state energy company Inter RAO said China had asked it to increase electricity supplies to offset shortages at home.
“In its most pessimistic, dehumanized form, the Fourth Industrial Revolution may indeed have the potential to “robotize” humanity and thus to deprive us of our heart and soul.”
I thought the First Industrial Revolution accomplished that.
I always wonder what happens to those who rush to join new left groups and then find them failures.
We had our own members all excited with Left Unity which I was surprised to learn that it is still going. More importantly, I wonder why it is still in existence, having achieved so little after such a fanfare of a beginning.
We can’t expect The Economist to be sympathetic to Xi but some useful stats
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/10/02/chinas-new-reality-is-rife-with-danger
The top 20% of China’s households take home over 45% of the country’s disposable income; the top 1% own over 30% of household wealth
Property developers are sitting on $2.8trn of borrowing. Property development and the industries that cater to it underpin about 30% of China’s gdp. Households have parked their savings in real estate partly because other assets offer a poor return. Households’ spending on unfinished property accounts for half of developers’ funding. Local governments, especially outside the big cities, depend on land sales and property development to generate revenue.
Another useful read
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/10/02/just-how-dickensian-is-china
I was about to read another on the power outages but my free article limit ended
Are Chinese loans sustainable for countries that borrow?
China’s overseas lending had dramatically shifted from government-to-government loans during the pre-BRI era, to almost 70% now going to state-owned companies and banks, joint ventures, private institutions, and special purpose vehicles (SPVs).
This had led to extensive underreporting of repayment obligations – to an estimated $385bn – because the primary borrowers are no longer central government institutions with stricter reporting requirements.
massive loans to high-risk countries were enabling “debt book diplomacy” in some – but not all – regions, forcing them to cede ownership or control of major assets to Beijing in lieu of repayment.
“Many poor governments could not take on any more loans,” AidData executive director Brad Parks told AFP. “So China got creative.”
“Beijing is more willing to bankroll projects in risky countries than other official creditors, but it is also more aggressive than its peers at positioning itself at the front of the repayment line (via collateralisation),” the report said, noting 40 of the 50 largest loans were collateralised, often against future commodity exports… demanded far higher interest rates with shorter repayment periods.
In the case of Pakistan Chinese loans with average interest rates of 3.76%, compared with a typical OECD-linked loan’s rate of 1.1%.
China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “not all debts are unsustainable”
Xi’s 10-point plan
http://www.xinhuanet.com/2021-08/11/c_1127752490.htm
(since I previously linked to a Chinese language page you seem surprised I understood what it said. Useful tip – click translate)
China’s power cuts
“…And as electricity demand has risen, the price of coal has been pushed up. But with the government strictly controlling electricity prices, coal-fired power plants are unwilling to operate at a loss, with many drastically reducing their output instead…”
The law of capitalism – no profit, no production
“I don’t believe anybody seriously believes Xi
intends to dispossess the rich. Rather, just like
many other countries, even some conservative ruled
ones, there may be higher taxes imposed.”
Shows how little you know.TS did you read the concluding sentence of the Chinese based banking link I provided.
‘President Xi Jinping convened a high-level meeting last week that highlighted wealth inequality and called for “reasonable adjustments to excessive incomes.” ‘
Reasonable adjustments to excessive incomes
Does that sound like dispossession to you? As you keep telling us, China is a mixed economy and as such will apply fiscal measures to close the inequality gap.
However, it cannot end inequality per see because capitalism requires relative poverty levels to exist to provide the momentum of capital accumulation – the need for an industrial reserve army.
It isn’t just the billionaires, is it? There still remains the multi-millionaires and the millionaires.
China’s high-net-worth individuals (personal total net worth, excluding residential property exceeds one million dollars) population was 1.32 million according to Chinese Banking Association.
26,700 ultra-high-net-worth-individuals), those whose assets are valued above US$30 million in 2019.
These figures may be different depending on source but it gives a clear indication of the wealth inequality that exists.
Wealth-X suggest an estimated 2 million high net worth (HNW) and almost 27,000 ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals in 2019
Their vast wealth, at a total of $4.2trn, the ultra wealthy in China maintain a significantly higher combined wealth than the 2 million individuals at the ‘lowest’ wealth tier.
I don’t believe anybody seriously believes Xi intends to dispossess the rich. Rather, just like many other countries, even some conservative ruled ones, there may be higher taxes imposed.
Just as other countries propose reducing tax evasion Xi promises much the same.
Jonathan Cook on Starmer.
Labour’s Palestine motion means Keir Starmer’s war on the left is not over
Sadly. JC still hold to the idea that nationalisation is socialism
Another Guardian article, endeavouring to create the cult of the personality for the “toolmaker’s son”
