-By B.A.Kader (Kader Master) Part 01 of 2
(Lanka-e-News -19.April.2025, 10.45 PM) President Donald Trump's April 2nd imposition of tariffs on over 150 countries, punching above US’s strength and displaying blatant hegemonic arrogance, proved the breaking point. Decades of humiliation and threats against both reluctant allies and foes alike, finally pushed the world beyond its tolerance. His boast of countries "kissing his ass" to negotiate tariffs was the final straw.
While other countries silently seethe and frantically look for alternative China alone stands defiant against this US-made tsunami. This unexpected turn of events must have stunned many, especially the corrupt minds of the intellectually enslaved by Western media. The new reality, however uncomfortable, is finally becoming apparent
It was this country that lagged behind Sri Lanka by millions of years when the latter became independent in 1948, one year before the Communist party and its liberation army liberated China. Only ten nations had a lower GDP per capita than China at that time, making it one of the poorest in the world. Then, China was essentially a basket case, 200 years behind the Industrial Revolution, shattered by opium addiction, and in a tortured state where famine, natural disasters, foreign hostility, civil war, banditry, and world war were all wreaking havoc on the country.
Nevertheless, this sleeping dragon awoke to become the fastest-growing economy in human history, changing its industrial system and development mechanism since 1978, and emerging as the world's center for innovation, research, and development. According to the US Geological Survey, it used as much cement in three years between 2011 and 2023 as the US did in the entire 20th century, making it the world's second-largest economy and the world’s largest exporter at the same time.
How did this miracle occur? It was because China had the proper system and policy in place. China's education budget is four times larger than its defence budget. Defence spending in the US is four times higher than education spending. China offers distinctively high-quality education. It has world class universities like Tsinghua University and the Peking University now. Its schools are not used to reinforce the majoritarian hegemonistic ideology by teaching myths as history, nor is it only focused on producing civil servants and clerical workers. It seeks to create technocrats and scientists while fostering national unity. As a result, while the US produces half a million STEM graduates per year, China produces over 4.5 million STEM graduates annually.
China, therefore, surpassed all other countries in fields like artificial intelligence (AI) and solar energy production. The iconic Tesla has been surpassed by BYD (Beyond Your Dream) electrical vehicle today. Another significant aspect of China's economic growth is that, although the patriotic private sector has always had a secure place, the majority of the benefits of economic progress are distributed to the populace. China could therefore lift its 11.4 billion people—one-fourth of the world's population—out of poverty. Industrial workers' average income has increased 130 times (not 130 percent) in the last 45 years, beginning in 2080, while the US has only seen a fourfold increase during this period.
State-owned enterprises (SOEs), mixed-ownership businesses, and a sizable domestic private sector make up the Chinese economy. At present, China's economy has shifted from a stage of high-speed growth to a stage of high-quality development where state provides leadership at every level.
The Chinese government has never abandoned its duty to guide the nation in the proper direction by letting anyone else take the wheel. State-owned enterprises (SOEs) plays an important role in this country. Some of the biggest companies in the world today, such as China State Construction Engineering, China National Petroleum Corporation, and State Grid Corporation of China are SOEs whilst the largest private companies such as the Tencent, Alibaba, JD.com, TSMC, ByteDance (Tik Tok) are private companies. China's bullet trains are the world's fastest and most advanced. As a component of the transportation service that the state ought to offer its people, it is not regarded as a business for profit.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the biggest bank in the world, is owned by the government. In the year 2021, its governor received a salary of $110,000 while. Jemie Dimon, the US bank governor of JP Morgan Chase Bank, received $34 million annually. Thus, the US bank Governor Jemie Dimon's half-day pay is equivalent to the Chinese bank governor's annual salary. It's interesting to note that when it comes to purchasing power parities, or PPP, China surpassed the US in 2017 because income has significantly increased and consumer goods prices are roughly 48% lower there compared to US’.
China has a 31.06 percent supply share on the world market, and last year, its trade excess exceeded $1 trillion USD. China accounted for $438.9 billion of U.S. purchases or 36% of US’s imports in 2024. Nevertheless, given the enormity of the Chinese economy, it only accounts for 2. 9% of China’s GDP.
The US cannot readily wean itself off of its reliance on Chinese products, especially in its supply chains. Despite the decline in Chinese imports to US since 2018, a large number of goods currently imported from third countries still rely on China-made components and raw materials.
In terms of technology, the ongoing tariff war could significantly lower the profit margins of many US companies that rely heavily on Chinese manufacturing, including Apple and Tesla. About 72% of the rare earth resources needed by the military and high-tech industries worldwide are supplied by China. China has a large market with a population of 1,411 billion and an affluent middle-class in 2022—more than all of Europe (449.2 million) and the United States (340.1 million) combined.
Despite its huge domestic market, China, the world's factory, cannot absorb its current high volume of supply, but, isn't solely reliant on the US market. If the US closes its market to China, it can find alternative market elsewhere faster than the US could reorganize its convoluted supply chain, shooting itself in the foot as the price of goods in the US would skyrocket in tandem with its tariff on China, causing economic turmoil at home.
The secret of China's defiance against the US tariff war was revealed when Chinese President Xi Jinping made the following unusual statement.
‘For over 70 years, China’s development has relied on self-reliance and hard work — never on handouts from others, and it is not afraid of any unjust suppression’
The tiny island of Sri Lanka might not be a good fit for comparison with China, the third-largest country in the world with a population of 25% of the world's total. So let's make a comparison between Singapore and Sri Lanka.
To be continued
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by (2025-04-19 17:27:05)
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