Why China is winning | Steve Keen and Lex Fridman
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ก.ค. 2022
- Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: • Steve Keen: Marxism, C...
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Steve Keen is a heterodox economist and author.
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Nobody ever talks about how xi jingping studied chemical engineering and the guy before him was an hydro engineer and the guy before him studied electrical engineering..
Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party. In a 2020 interview, she said, “He (Xi Jinping) doesn’t have much academic background. He only spent a few years at Tsinghua University. After a few years in the countryside, he became a worker-peasant-soldier student. They didn’t really have to study. It was fake, it was just a formality.”
Nobody ever talks about how China is just bigger than the whole West including Japan and Russia combined. It's an anomaly that they don't deside everything
My take on how Chinese and Americans feel is:
Freedom in China vs the US is in a sense everyday freedom vs "long-term" freedom (for lack of a better word). In daily life I think Chinese people feel freer than Americans because China feels safer. Women can jog at night in big cities, and there is not much violent crime in China. But then came Covid and lockdowns and people in China felt the frustration of not being able to do or say anything about the absolute power of the government.
In terms of happiness, I think Chinese feel happier than Americans, because they feel that their country keeps improving, whereas many Americans think that their country is going down the drain.
Generally I think humans will put up with anything so long as their wealth/status/comfort/material condition whatever is improving. And people in stagnation will never be happy.
@@Northex23 Yeah, at least to some degree, as the everyday freedoms and state of life is what really matters. How heads of state in a massive are elected and how policy is set, is rather theoretical of a freedom (though I would underline that I think it is important).
Women would be fine with jogging in American cities if cities didn’t have black people.
@@rasmusrasmusson Did Chinese government release the data about it, last time I checked their is no free media in China
@@rasmusrasmusson Well I'd say we think its important because we believe it leads to better outcomes, but if it could be proven that outcomes would always be better under autocracy, then would we still think the freedom of democracy is important? Of course I agree with you, I think any autocratic regime is destined to end up with bad leadership and no way to get rid of it, but then, thats how a lot of people see the West as now.
"You can't make a profit out of catastrophe in capitalism"
Moderna stock: Am I a joke to you?
Yes but that already happened which means it’s episodic.
Potential catastrophe like a sun flare that destroys internet in a lot of places and satellites wouldn’t be profitable for any insurance company to offer protection for. They can for catastrophe that happens regularly like tornadoes and so on.
@@VantaBlackSheep No, it's absurd to think that capitalism doesn't capitalize. Just look at the Clinton's, they've made fortunes off of other peoples suffering, and are proof that a good catastrophe can be very profitable.
@@kittredge5167 people make boat loads of cash in a good catastrophe, a lot less make money based on potential catastrophe and frameworks for planning for potential catastrophe no matter how improbably and unprofitable is necessary for the survival of the entire species.
They would be competing with all instances of government over it, while taking huge risks
Was going to say, surely Keen knows all about disaster capitalism. He was doing great until the end about masks and not making a profit from a catastrophe. Faucis emails from early 2020 on masks being useless outside a clinical setting are very much accepted now. All they did was make millions of tonnes of plastic garbage.
It's so easy to take these stances against America. I'm glad Lex is here to represent the middle man. The one who survives to tell the stories.
It isn’t, he’s not anti America he’s stating some facts. China will overtake
You got it backwards. *It's easy to take these stances against China*
“The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Nailed it. Thanks mate
Cringe
@@alan_jackson_jihad8135 All the commies think so...
@@alan_jackson_jihad8135 you are
Before covid 200 million Chinese people leave the country for travel each year and 200 million return. They have plenty of time to compare
A benevolent big brother with unchecked and near limitless power is a terrifying thing whether it's China or America.
Agreed, the problem with centralized authority is all it takes a few to destroy entire nation slowly or quickly.
Amen
And it's even more terrifying to be part of a system that we know is ultimately inferior and at some point will be subservient to that big brother anyways.
This is why we need to stop walking blindly towards a cliff, open our eyes, and adapt.
@@jeffreymontoya9933 untill their population crashes their zombie economy crashes and the people revolt
@@jeffreymontoya9933 There ain’t no “we” in the system anymore. We’re all subjects.
There is no such thing as a perfect system when everyone has a different definition of perfect.
Debian Testing is the Perfect System. giggle
Exactly. That extends especially into morality. One group can think it’s moral to take from people as long as they have more than you. One group could consider that stealing. You’ve seen extreme examples throughout history with things like slavery and racism. Everyone has a different definition of perfection and of what is right or wrong.
So as you said no system can be perfect because in the end it just boils down to how many people get a decision on what is ‘perfect’ and what is ‘good/bad’. Today we’ve chosen the system of ‘try and let everyone have an equal say’ but sometimes the ‘majority’ thinks slavery is good. Sometimes they think 20% tax is good and sometimes 70%.
The only way you’ll have a perfect system is to have someone perfect running it.
The perfect system is one that continuously adapts. Nature solved this problem billions of years ago with natural selection and evolution.
Tell me about it, been craving some of that North Korean starvation
@@alech2116 I think at some point we'll all have to compromise and settle on it being as good as it can be. I think that the only way for a person to be perfect is in their intent not in the outcome. We try to do the right thing but that is not always clear but the desire to do the right thing is. We don't always have the answer and I am sure that most people if they had a magic wand would solve everyone else's problems but that's not reality. Intentions matter.
My social credit points have risen by watching this thank you
What do you think cancel culture is a precursor to?
You have won the internet sir.
How's your western credit score doing?
@@rickobrien1583 Not based on loyalty to a party so I'm fine with my credit score which is based purely on the responsibility of my payments.
triggered american/indian
imagine being a fan of this podcast and being unable to entertain views that conflict w your own
Should be the point of podcasts. Gain new perspectives, challenge current viewpoints
"Entertain...mull...contemplate"....none of these terms equal "agree"....
@@JohnS_mith who's saying the implication is to agree?
Claims that China has got it right by not allowing citizens to criticise the government then proceeds to criticise the decisions of the Australian government in the same breath.
you didn't watch the thing did you?
Yeah, he is an unappealing guy. Don't like his way of arguing. Hated it that Lex was kind of reluctant with his objections.
what Iamsheep said. I’m not saying I’m in agreement but he was saying that because it’s accepted, centralized control, they do a better job at delegating the task to people more equipped to make a proper decision.
@@jamesschroeder1174 I wouldnt name indoctrination as acceptance. Quite different and crucial. Even if it is effective, its still inhuman and shouldn't been sold as a good conception.
@@N1otAn1otherN1ame Lex's objections made no sense, for example it is a fallacy to compare China to North Korea. Chinese people travel and study all over the world. They have seen, lived, experienced western countries.
Alot of educated young Chinese also have access to western media and social media from using VPN. They know way more about the west than a typical westerner know about China.
People need to realize Chinese communism is different from what they knew, ie the soviet communism. I bet they did not know Mao's China almost went on a full out war with the soviet, partly due to a different interpretation of communism.
It is very sad the typical westerner is still so stuck in the past and actively refuse to learn new knowledge.
Been in Taiwan 22years. Own my own business, 100%. Gf is Chinese. Great lady. I've been going to China for two decades. Always see happy , FIT THIN people. It's great there. I'll never go back to North America for the rest of my life.
Except... 🙏
ok
This guy would be coming up with excuses to centralize power no matter the situation. This is such motivated reasoning.
🎯💯
I thinks it's more of a china thing for this guy if you know what I mean. The guy said he had a Chinese girlfriend, as soon as I heard that I knew what would be coming...
@@travisjohn4630 Nah, Laowhy & Serpentza have chinese spouses without shilling for the CCP. This guy's probably a homegrown Marxist (excuse me, "influenced by Marx" according to his wiki) that then traveled to China due to already agreeing with the ideology.
Love to see what he'll say at the end of the decade if Zeihan is right & China collapses.
Still doesn't mean that people, on average, are not happy in China. Don't let your Western bias fool you.
@@londo0 " Western bias" ok Miss Pink ha ha ha ha ha ha....in one year there will be Civil War in fake China... 80 years ago China was seven different warlord countries, that's what will be there in a year from now... Cannibalism like last time people eating people it's going to be very glorious dream ha ha ha ha western bias ha ha.... Thank you Mrs. Pink.
I've recently heard of the demographic issues China are facing. Going from a mostly rural population to urban in one generation. Families having around 5 kids, give or take, to just 1-2. That type of swing usually would take 5 generations. When it comes time to replace the current workforce, there may not be enough people to fill those jobs. Sure, automation may help with this but that demographic cliff is vast. It's an argument I haven't heard about China from any mainstream media outlets. So does that mean it is a non-issue or is there really something to that argument against the future dominance of China?
Same, Sam Harris guest Peter Zeihan
demographic issues are pretty overblown, the rest of asia has a much lower birth rate than China and no immigration and really no one is talking about it. What people are scared of is degrowth from lowering population, as in the productive capacity of a country being lower. But China despite its Tier 1 cities operating like cities of developed nations still has alot of development to do. Much of rural China is still very unindustralised, using inefficient farming methods and such. Productivity grow still has alot of room to go in China, so where as it would take 10 people to farm a plot of land in the future it would take 1 or 2. Degrowth is much more of a concern for developed nations where there isnt much left of growth capacity left
@@jamzy9 productivity is only one part though no? If the 'working population is only 20% what it is now in 10-20 years, and at the same time 'dependent' population e.g. retirees and children are up 500% it would almost seem an insurmountable obstacle to overcome by sheer technological innovation in the same time, but we will see what they can do. We have the same issue here in the West as you touched on, and it may be a lot worse, if you're correct that we are reaching diminishing returns in productivitive from innovation. At this time and from what I know however, this is a substantially bigger issue in China than the West for now.
@@harryseaton7444 true dependent population are usually a drain on the system, but in China's case they have a relatively high savings rate for their older population so they become a source of consumption. Also there is an expectation of filial piety so they children should support their elders. Currently the retirement age in china for men is 60 and females is 55 to 50, I expect that to start to shift up and converge with similar standards like the west to further decrease any potential burden.
@@jamzy9 The birth rates in china are at about .7, which means they aren't even sustainable. In fact, India is going to, or has, overtake China for largest population.
When Steve says that "often every administrator in charge or making decisions in China are engineers"(paraphrasing @10min mark). He's pretending that there's barely anyone who's a CCP loyalist & gained power that way & none of them are doing what's best for themselves & lining their own pockets. When there's many examples of this in China. And him saying that "only people who know what they're talking about are making the decisions" is shockingly absurd!!
Not to mention that recent reports suggest that the number of law degrees compared to engineering degrees in provincial Party positions is increasing. Might explain their covid missteps if all of these engineers are retiring & being replaced by the same people who make up politics here.
Administrators in China are both: they are loyalists who are looking out for themselves, but they are also highly educated engineers.
That's a much better qualification for political office than in certain other places where the main qualification is how much money you can raise for electoral campaigns, and how much of a social media sensation you can be.
Nah he admitted theres loyalist ass kissers, its just relative to the US theres a lot *more* engineers with real influence over major infrastructure
Had the same reaction.
@@Low_commotioncorporations/ corporate lwyers?
Steve paving the way for some global central power to save everyone from themselves
Is “save me harder from myself,daddy” meme appropriate here?
I get that reaction. I think the instinct to be suspicious of conclusions such as Steve's here should be upregulated. I would ask that you keep an open mind on Steve's intentions though. I discovered him 10 years ago on a show where he was pitching a debt jubilee to a hostile elitist on British TV, and have found him a good follow ever since.
I find it hard to imagine he is in the pocket of any billionaire, anywhere
@@orenrob1914 I agree and don't mean he is in the pocket of anyone..what I'm saying is he is reading events in the way that global movements may end up lapping something like that up
@@orenrob1914 Tbf, Xi is one of the richest people on Earth in terms of real resources at his command. Putin too, at least before the invasion. People often forget that governments & political rulers also have the power of the checkbook, even though they don't actually own the money on paper.
Kindly let me help you or you'll drown, said the monkey pulling the fish safely up the tree.
This dude knows for certain that he is actually the smartest person he has ever met.
His mirror would like a word with him.
Every smart person, like any athletic person, needs to have at least some confidence in his own ability right? Take MJ for example... A part of being smart is FEELING smart
@@Eye_Radiate_Light no it isnt. you have to be able to know when you're wrong, if you're never wrong, you never learn, then you get stupid real fast
@@bradhaines3142 I think you're trying to say "open-mindedness" is the most important factor to being intelligent. You don't learn from your mistakes from being "close-minded".
He admits his intellectual arrogance during the interview.
In 1980 he would have said that the Soviets are winning.
No one would’ve said that in 1980. Maybe in 1957, (Sputnik) but not in 1980.
@@wecanjump7512 The point he was making was that our understanding of China, those who truly know the country see it like we saw the USSR in 1980. Steve is the guy who is in favor of their system, and willing to allow the detriments and sheer damage on the world stage for his own slightly twisted ideology.
@@janus3555 He isn’t in favor of their system. He’s against the lack of political freedom and for the social safety nets/standard of living.
@@janus3555 It doesn’t matter what we (I despise their government) think about their system. The Chinese love it, and they are becoming extremely patriotic. They’re also robbing the world blind of its intellectual property, and are at least 5 (probably 10) years ahead of the West in AI development. Meanwhile, we have a runaway group of right-wing fanatics that want to destroy our governments.
@@wecanjump7512 Not from what I dealt with when living there. It helps to live in China to get an idea as to the sheer level of their fragility. It's a ticking time-bomb. I went into detail in replies to other comments. You can look if interested.
What is said on social media, what party loyalists say and where it's said are all considerations in the country. China and SKorea are alike in some ways and not a like in others. This area, they're more alike but deal with it quite differently.
This man clearly does not understand China's population decline issue.
Exactly
man doesn't understand so many issues surrounding china lol
This man doesn't understand a lot.
The problem with the US is not capitalism, as, by Keen's own admission, China has been successful solely via capitalism (and authoritarianism, which I doubt is the secret sauce). China is about to economically collapse; so much for communism avoiding economic cycles. It still has Soviet-esque mega-disasters (cough, cough... COVID) that almost end the world.
Meanwhile, people complain about wealth inequality in the US while also having an iPhone, car, mortgage, new clothes, nice computers, flying coach on a fairly regular basis, etc, etc. China still has a whole rural class of people (550 million of them) who aren't ever mentioned, at least 15% of which are still illiterate (female figures being far worse); how can the US get some of that success over here? They have also built entire cities that no one lives in.
China still has central planning, and it sucks; it isn't long before central planning fails because no group of people can successfully plan systems of that magnitude. Humans can barely manage to run successful businesses over 1000 people across multiple generations. Even when countries do, they have to be run cross-generationally across centuries... or else your population gets decimated miserably, and no one has that foresight.
The biggest problem in the US is cultural, which has been brought about by -- wait for it -- Marxists.
What about we westerners?
Lol someone listened to the latest Sam Harris podcast
Lex got it right. In north Korea, they actually love their leader. My grandma said when Stalin died in 53, kids and teachers were crying all day. And we aren't even Russians, it was in Hungary, 3 years prior to the the revolution in Budapest
No, lex is wrong.. why? North Koreans can’t leave the country, Chinese can and actually most people have left and most of the Go back. Want a real view into how Chinese people think? Download 小红书 and take a look at 留学生 aka students who study overseas and how much they miss or want to go back… don’t ask me why they’re not studying in China if they love it so much it’s a separate argument… my point is those who have seen both worlds tend to factor life back home..
Lex: "They don't know the alternative...".... Forgetting of course that there are millions of Chinese who are studying and living abroad and they have tens of millions of relatives. Notwithstanding the tens of millions who have traveled for leisure and seen the world.
Here is what you need to understand about China that neither of them stated:
- people have seen huge increases in their income and living standards in last 30 years so of course they will look at what brought them this and are OK with the tradeoffs and that they have no say in who governs them because they get something out of it. We also need to remember that as bad as the Mao years were (which ended 50 years back), the systems before were worse for most everybody (feudalism anyone?)
- most people are apolitical and just go about their business and their goals are to do better for their kids and themselves (not very different from the west) - there is no day to day interference from the party in most people's lives
- you have very little interaction with government or police - a lot of things are online. Yes there is some surveillance but again is there more CCTV than in NYC or London? and police is not armed. you get stopped by a traffic cop, you can come out of your car and yell at the guy... Now if you do some political shit you may meet some special police but this happens to almost no one. Things like the social credit scores are overblown. no one cares about it.
- 1990-2010 saw a very de-centralized model take place - and in the last 10 year there has been an attempt to completely re-balance this towards the center which has caused frictions and tensions. And has also somehow slowed the growth a bit.
However at the moment the issues are:
- slowdown in the economy is a risk because people are less willing to accept NO CHOICE if they dont get better off - people will now ask for more accountability
- the lockdown has brought back grassroots officials back in the limelight and this Steve Keen describes well. Now this meddling of local officials that no one respects or even really fears into people daily lives and business is backfiring.
- Pragmatism seems unfortunately as dirty a word in China as in the US and Europe these days, giving way to ideology and noble ideas.... what that leads to? complete break down in dialogue because everyone says his piece but is not only unwilling to compromise. they don't even listen to the other side. Progress? nope. Reality? yup
So in some areas of China there is now some people questioning policies and decisions and it is more or less open.
You have abut 50k Americans living there you can ask. Seems like most of them don't seem that bothered by the system.
and from someone who is neither American nor Chinese, let me tell you, you guys have a lot in common.....
Very good and well explained comment. Thank you for sharing this
Good comment. I doubt most ppl will be able to tolerate your rational without having a meltdown about perceived freedoms.
@@BAMZ1ER In many ways it is the same situation in Singapore although the regime is far less authoritarian than China. But same principle of a sort of tacit contract: we deliver prosperity and you leave us in power. Where promoting what they call social stability is done with a carrot (growth) and a more or less big stick. But at the same time, that stick is only usually reserved for major issues. But yes can be hard to understand from outside
Yeah the chinese surveillence is intense and they do have clear visibility of who lives where at much lower levels than in the US, BUT, none of that actually competes with the same activity of the US govt orgs like NSA and such, its just more out of immediate visibility to most in the US than it is in China
And yeah as an outsider China seems to lack many freedoms but the US seems to lack much, much more, for the vast majority of people
This guy turns my stomach into a starving murderous capitalist.
*Winning what?*
@19:30 a sure sign that the end is near is if/when insurance companies cancel policies.
Question what is the difference between a sufficiently large corporation and authoritarian government? They centrally plan products, prices, wages and in the case of platforms control the information you see, as well as products and their prices all based on an infinitely detailed understanding of each individual’s shopping history and personal outlook.
The corporation (in a healthy state) has competition and consumers can go elsewhere, additionally, the corporation is restrained by the laws and regulations of the state.
One can be democratic? One protects you with nukes ? One is necessary while othrr people have goverments? We can do without corporations but not at this time goverment. Why do you want smaller tyrants just for shits an giggls when the goverment will control them or they will take over the goverment and not br happy with your vote but also tske all your money?
You don’t need centralized communication to know that you and your family are starving
I feel like this man hasn't done any research on China since 1995. He's the type of guy that would have been betting big on Japan in the late 80's.
Cope
@T S this is the 3rd post I’ve seen of yours…someone definitely needs to “cope”
How many times have you been to China?
Absolutely, everything he says sounds like he's stuck in the past when so many in the rest of the world were doing everything they could to encourage China to open up. Little did we expect how much they would try to throw it back in our faces as soon as they experienced a modicum of success. People are wising up though and now it's starting to blow up in their own faces.
Well he's Australian so he's probably already bought and payed for by the CCP.
If you complain…. You disappear. That’s very helpful to the central committee.
12:38 Bring me the grapes! LOL
China has got millions and millions of Americans addicted to tiktok. That alone is a big victory for China.
Deus ex ending irl
Yes. They will unleash a dance party on us
@@jefferee2002 Control the thoughts of the kids and you'll control the future. Home schooling will save the west from demise.
Are you serious, dude?
@@jefferee2002 Wether you're joking or not you have to remember what TikTok is. At the end of the day they are a data company. They have incredible amount of data/information of Americans. China can easily influence users with their political views. No different how Russia influenced Americans on facebook with fake pages.
At 11:00 ish, this is a complete rewriting of history. Fibre to the home in Australia was a bizarre proposition. We live on comparatively huge blocks of land spread out over hundreds, thousands of kilometres. It's not Seoul where 6,000 people live in one apartment tower all serviced by fibre. The logistics of digging up every street in Aus are gargantuan & it wasn't costed properly. The ALP (Dem-equivalent) announced it as a thought bubble with nil planning. The half-arsed result the LNP (Rep-equivalent) ultimately delivered does ok, but even that is late, far over budget, overkill in some areas and underwhelming where it's actually needed. There's a bit more to it than the way he put it here.
Lex Fridman has a very soothing voice.
Lex, can you invite Kishore Mahbubani? Brilliant man and articulate. Would love to see you two take on this topic.
Not gonna sit well, he's too pro-China for this channel. This aussie guy right here he's not even praising China, look how much pushback he gets from the comments
@@zhouyinpiao Ray Dalio recently came on and he shared similar perspectives about China. As to the audience's reactions, I think the majority of Lex's audience are intelligent enough to consider different views. One does not sit through an hour of a podcast about the meaning of life, quantum theory and AI if one doesn't have the ability to think critically haha
"The US needs more centralized planning and military planning. The covid response wasn't good enough and we needed more government." Ok im out
We should have been welded into our homes like the Chinese. No, the Covid thing was completely controlled top down. There was no aspect about Covid that wasn't influenced by the government. If anything, this should be proof that unfettered and bloated government, is probably not a good idea. But, it kind of seems like this guy thinks that the government just needs more authority, more funding.
@@kittredge5167 but you’ll be happier because you won’t be able to tell anyone you’re miserable 😂. They probably have energy meters hooked to their body and those old Chinese people weren’t dancing because they want to, they literally have to by gov mandate lmao
Lol for real, it's funny actually hearing these ppl think.
When everybody starves to death or the entire economy is shut down leading to historic inflation or whatever i guess it's just a big oopsie daisy
Decentralization isn't easy and that's the point
@@theonlyconstantischange123 "china has the engineering to put a skyscraper up in a day" Wow thats incredible, they dont even have to wait for the concrete to dry or any welds to get tested or any kind of standard whatsoever lmao.
@@SteveMe21685 If they put it up at all, it'd be a Tofu Dreg project, and start falling apart in a day as well.
"China is a great country"
"Yeah, I've visited China multiple times, so what?"
I feel like people who visit China, get lost in their fanfare, and lose perspective. It's like a foreigner visiting Vegas, and assuming everyone around the US gambles all the time.
Also, he claims that China doesn't regulate their economy, but they do. Their housing market is completely regulated and supported by the Chinese government, and is one of the fundamental issues which will lead to their housing market crash.
I can appreciate that he has differing points of view, but he's obviously biased, and that doesn't help for a healthy conversation.
I suppose a "healthy" conversations entails one believing in the promised Coming Collapse of China(tm)?
China is a great country 👍 in comparison to USA a country of inequality and rasisim, homeless, drug abuse, gun shots, food stamps.... government fraud...
This may seem like a stupid question but If the Chinese government regulates their housing market, can’t they just pause the housing market if there’s gonna be a housing market crash
@@Sean-ds3br That's not a stupid question. But, I don't know if I have a great answer. I want to say yes, they can basically do what ever they want, because it's an authoritarianism. But, something like 30% of China's GDP is their housing market, so pausing that would collapse their economy.
@@kittredge5167 thanks for replying. The economy would collapse if house prices dropped significantly, people stopped paying for their mortgages and Chinese banks ended up with a lot of bad debts but If they could pause the selling and buying of any property then the prices wouldn’t drop and those people with a mortgage still have to pay for it. I don’t know man. It seems complicated to me. But Chinese government do need housing market to fuel their economy
Although I keep coming back to atch his clips
Great convo! This guy doesn't understand Taleb's Antifragile concept though
"..You simply can't make a profit out of catastrophe in capitilism". Says the Aussie at the very end.
Um.............
That's exactly how and when capitalists make their most profit. Let's go ask big pharma how they faired during the pandemo.
Just an absolute asinine statement.
As a fellow Australian...
I cringed at the absurdity of that comment. 🤑🤑🤑
The Aussie is delusional
this video has lots of asinine statements
Hey Lex, Is the goal to be in a country where the people are free? Or win some hypothetical, undefined, competition with China?
How free can you be if China makes all your goods?
You really want to live in a world where a nationalist, authoritarian state is calling all the shots?
@@wecanjump7512 First, this isn’t a truthful statement, I buy very little from China. Second, buying a product from a seller doesn’t grant the seller control over your freedom. My point stands, Freedom and liberty of citizens should be the goal of a country. Not winning some made up competition between between two countries. That is a false dichotomy you have been presented. That’s fine. If you are cool with allowing others to think for you.
Economic and military capabilities are a key part of having/maintaining freedom and sovereignty. Sadly
Vital unfortunately. The competition with China is for the future of humanity that isn't Han-Chinese.
China has great social programs?? dude that is factually untrue. Great engineering in China is he for real??? Who is this guy??
A complete CCP chill… I’ve learned from Chinese people that they don’t even have free public healthcare in the Communist China.
man the neoliberal focus on metrics is strong in this guy.
Did he say food is better in China than in the states? 🙊
It is, most Chinese eat fresh food most Americans eat food that didn’t exist 100 years ago.
every country’s food is weird to non-natives.
@@upnorthj The stupidity of that statement is immeasurable. The CCP has to wak local food suppliers with a stick to get them to stop selling plastic rice and eggs to locals. not to mention the they have more processed food than we do. Can't wait for their genocidal regime to collapse by the end of the year.
Just because America is symbolic of free markets, doesn't mean that's what we have, and what, therefore, China is beating.
@@upnorthj “better” is broad and he didnt elaborate, it was a blanket statement based on what? Objective data about handling quality, levels of health? Subjective polling regarding Taste? What?
Within the first few minutes you can see some of his ideas of winning are misguided. Those large infrastructure projects? Many of them are now not being utilized, and have created a lot of debt to finance them. Those skyscrapers in a day? There’s a reason you don’t do that, materials need to set and checks need to take place, that’s why you see their buildings crumbling. Also he doesn’t even mention their incoming crisis of regional governments going bankrupt due to the way they collect taxes on property. Also he doesn’t even mention the incoming demographic crisis. Hard to take this man serious, he drank the kool aid.
I don’t know man, sounds to me like you had a few sips of koolaid too. Crumbling…?
@@soulfuzz368 this is a well documented issue, I encourage you to look into it. Large buildings collapse and kill hundreds every year in China.
@@Howaboutyoublow I need the koolaid you’re drinking
You cannot pretend that socially China doesn’t have their shit together and the USA isn’t falling apart. You talk about demographics as if they favor the US…they don’t. On every metric in regards to the quality of our demographics not just quantity, China is dominating. Marriage, Higher Education, Employment, even Fertility Rates etc
decades of political economic analysis in university research tenure or a TH-cam comment? :thinking:
"there are no solutions, only tradeoffs". - Thomas Sowell
Basic Economics
Spot on! Scandinavian plan economic s is the best solution today..
can you have someone to criticize canadian government, we need some help up here :(
I seond that! It will be interesting to see if my professor at Queens likes what I have to say about the issues we face here under the dictatorship of Trudeau?! Probably no!
uh... Lex... it helps to use the correct flag when the title is China... Sickle and hammer is the old USSR flag...
Great podcast of open discussions. Though I didn't find this guest convincing at all
Yah he's out to lunch. Search some China watch youtubers. China is falling apart from the inside. Literally everything he praised is a facade in China.
Why not? This clip seemed fairly convincing to me
Genuinely curious about your perspective
2nd edit ok I can't possibly believe the individual Chinese person is actually having a 'better' experience than the average American or westerners today.
@@harryseaton7444 one example is saying china is a leader in carbon reducer when they've been far and away the world's biggest carbon polluter for decades.
Also referring to how amazing they are at building infrastructure. They literally have empty ghost cities that aren't going to fill up due to poor central planning.
I'm not a China hater but the truth is in between. I don't trust people that only paint one side of a picture.
@@harryseaton7444 I'm usually open to suggestion, like even the Marxist he had on recently made me think of a lot of things differently like most his guests do.
This guy is simply making some very big claims with very little attempt to justify them.
True.
He sounds a bit like a CCP influencer - LOL
DeRucci effect 💯
The US media has fried your brain. My guy
this guy's articulation about neoliberal policy near the end was so great! Haven't heard it described that way.
Lex you should try to book Peter Zeihan to give the opposite view on China, he argues the Chinese are on the verge of irrevocable demographic collapse over the next 10 years.
...on top of unsustainable economic propping up of labor by the government, on top of a housing market house of cards about to collapse, on top of susceptibility to foreign suppliers for 85% of inputs to their agricultural and manufacturing base during a period of de-globalization, on top of a labor supply no longer competitive vs. other manufacturing hubs, on top of a complete lack of COVID resistance short of complete lockdowns, on top of a political system gutted by Shi Jinpeng to the point of incompetence in favor of rule by autocracy and cult of personality. The current chinese order does indeed look doomed over the next decade.
And I agree with Pete.
China is falling apart. It's going broke, Zero covid policy has riots everywhere, banks failing, Power struggles. Democracies are looking at other trade partners. It will fall apart from the inside. Real estate crashes as empty cities are falling apart. People aren't paying mortgages for apartments that were supposed to be built years ago. Chinese people are not happy. Lex is right, North Koreans don't know they have it bad. Just ask some of the escapees. Eating dragon flys not to starve they thought was normal. They are so sheltered. Girls didn't know why they were being smuggled out of North Korea and wondered what all the lights of China were. This guys is a tard. lol China's incredible High speed rail loses millions every day and there green energy is a joke. Everything in China is fake. Fish are literally jumping out of the poisoned water. There is no hope for the Chinese people and they are realizing it fast. Think USSR in the 80s
Oh no from 1.3 billion to 800 million oh my gosh ahhh world is ending for China. Only 800 million people left with 500,000,000 robots ahh China's gonna collapse aahhhh
Using Peters logic all of Asia and Europe is on the verge of collapse and America is only avoiding collapse by importing other people. These neoliberal economists are so engrossed by endless growth that they can’t even see population reduction is not a bad thing, it’s productivity reduction that harms an economy and country. And china’s rural areas have so much left in terms of productivity improvement
I now know why all my Aussie buddy’s are lagging so hard playing ESO…….rip my friends
Where exactly is “Chiner”?
Just on this clip (I haven't watched the full interview yet) it seems Mr. Keen is talking a bit in circles and anecdote. I'm impressed with Lex in that you can tell it doesn't sit comfortable with him.
Interesting guest, but I prefer Martin Jacques analyses of China vs The West, he goes more deeply into the historical and social causes of China’s rise (Confucionism etc.)
One thing to note: when you have such centralized power as a president and manage a such a big country, you don't need to go corruption.
You would more worry about how the future history book write about you.
While democratic system, president has much less power which leads to less responsibility and more easy leads to corruption.
The issue of authoritarian regime is more of going to wrong direction in high speed.
This guy loves himself some communism. Well done Lex for challenging his nonsense.
The guy doesn't love communism. He's just speaking from his own experience. You're presenting yourself here as a woke individual keen on cancelling people just because you don't agree with them. So much for freedom of thought and expression. You say your open minded yet put on ear plugs when you hear alternative information/thoughts that may challenging your world view.
@@titaniumskunkogkush4365 Chy-NA
@@jamesworkman8968 SNOWFLAKE. Lol
@@jamesworkman8968 LIBERAL!
US gov spending was 6 TRILLION dollars compares to China 200 BIL est. Which government is small and efficient and which is big? The speed and efficiency at which China completes infrastructure projects seems unrivaled compared to US crumbling infrastructure, defunct space programs, etc.
Wouldn’t say america has a defunct space program, James webb. Spacex has launched more astronauts in 3 years than China has in the past 20
Are you stupid?!?!? EVERYTHING in China belongs to the CCP. The private property is absolutely not guaranteed, just like in feudal times. Just ask Jack Ma. Their govt spends far more than any other in the world.
Has this guy ever heard of "tofu dreg"? Buildings/skyscrapers built literally out of carboard. Large cities in China lay vacant because they are built on speculation not demand, and the resulting bubble is what is causing defaults now. How can this guy not be aware of what is going on?
His blind obedience to Marx.
Yea, I'm not buying this video.
i was thinking the same thing.
Willfully ignorant
He's a complete ideologue
Would like to hear Peter Zeihan respond to this.
Apparently this man has an answer for everything. Why did they even have a discussion when it's apparent China is the greatest thing to have ever existed? 🤔
wtf are u talking about dummy
I just read over 10,000 of the wealthiest chinese businessmen with combined total of 48B USD wish to get their money and themselves out of China asap over fears of poor economic outlook
What they want and what they're going to get are completely different things.
@@musa7606 FDI into China is still growing explosively, as is capital formation in domestic Chinese markets. Those are the facts, some anecdotes about people wanting to move their money out (which they can't due to the capital controls) are irrelevant.
@@musa7606 Oh, I'm sure if people are determined enough they can squeeze some amount of money out, but the point is that's always going to be a limited channel. Besides, these aren't domestic investors - the OP is quoting a Bloomberg story, itself poorly sourced, that quotes people who own businesses hurt by the pandemic like restaurants. First, their capital is fixed so even if the Chinese government were inclined to let them leave with it they would have a difficult time liquidating it. Second, the growth sectors of China's economy like semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, EVs, clean energy are booming like they never have before. The real estate sector is suffering but that's long overdue for a correction.
That also applies to the individual Chinese person. I have spent years living in China and left just before COVID. ALL Chinese people are trying to get their money and families out of China
As I get older I think offshoring manufacturing is wise for the west. As the automation revolution continues to March on manufacturing will no longer be thought of as something that builds wealth. Factories will be practically unmanned, the machines within them will become less and less application specific. Eventually creativity will be the only scarce resource. In my travel and work experience I've found the west is leaps ahead of the world at producing creative people.
Lol have you seen the insanely incredible tech coming from China? Isn’t that creativity
@@kiprotichsalat2460 70-80% of that "incredible tech" was hacked/stolen from the west. Without all that thievery/head start they'd still be using dial-up modems, lol. There's a reason their stealth fighter & many of their other newer weapons are duplicates of ours
@@kiprotichsalat2460 Much of it is retooled tech we have. This includes bioengineering, nano tech, AI, Robotics, etc. All of which the US is still a few decades ahead of. Granted, they've been able to catch up a bit with stolen IP but much like their Aircraft Carrier and the second being built currently, they're woefully limited.
@@kiprotichsalat2460 Which incredible tech are you referring to? For me China is like the script kitty of the world. Their culture just isn't as effective at making creative people. There is a reason the west sets the taste for everyone else.
its going to be a solid 50 years before factories are anywhere near unmanned. sure there are a lot of things that dont take a lot of people to do, but some are far too varied for robots to be able to do. like anything custom the time to program the robots takes far longer than making it by hand would take
Partly because of headlines/video titles like this, and people not bothering to think too hard.
a bit of mind-bending,
those drinks on the table are at the top of the market )
So basically China simply decided to turn capitalistic greed and desire for profits to THEIR advantage (by moving their 'work force' from western locations to China, for their cheap labor force), and it simply accumulated over time. Had it not been for the simple inherent desire to not pay their normal original work force and create jobs locally, the majority of those western companies would have never even thought about China and, today, China would simply 100% not be where it is.
So...
1) Capitalist companies say "My work force costs me this much, but would be next to nothing in China, so let's move to China".
2) Over time, it causes a loss of jobs in the initial territory where that company operated and employed people (and the local, then maybe regional economy becomes affected over time).
3) China knows very well they're coming to their land to exploit their labor force... BUT... they take that and turn it around for their advantage.
4) This keeps going for decades, accumulates, and over time 'builds' China's power.
It's... genius.
When (not if) China takes over all of the world's economy and truly becomes the most advanced country on this planet I _hope_ that capitalist countries will have the decency to recognize that THEY themselves are the ultimate cause of this. They simply fed China, and China only used that extra energy and protein to go to the gym and come out looking like Arnold at 25 years of age.
Yeah, I’m not so sure about that. The first part he’s, I agree. But now it looks like the whole place is going to collapse, both demographically and economically.
Look at China's debt bubble. Biggest in the history of the world, period. When that shit explodes its gonna ripple around the world economy. But the ground zero area (China) is gonna be fucked.
And the corruption of fake contractors and companies building fake shit in paper and never finishing or even starting constructions is a sympton of a big problem, same thing happened in my home country with the authoritarian rule (but with zero emphasis on meritocracy like China has or had). A super centralized government with a seemingly benevolent leader doesn't work on the long run because eventually the new elite realize how to game the system.
China owes its prosperity to neo liberalism.. meanwhile, over half of Americans have less than 500 dollars in their bank account, and most of them are blaming it on " illegal aliens"
@T S i don’t know man, I wouldn’t be so optimistic about that
“Takes over the world’s economy” might be a stretch, but they will likely become the largest economy as long as they don’t screw it up by giving the Western powers an excuse to kick their @ss first.
So how did China end up with large uninhabited cities with empty high rise buildings as far as the eye can see?
It didn't. The "ghost cities" thing is just a fiction.
@@duyataksis5210 ah Russian disinformation. Damn Putin again....
@@Truth_Hurts528 No, just home-grown Western delusion. Take a single example of a development built in advance of migration and blow that up to a national catastrophe. It's another symptom of the West's inability to come to terms with the fact that China will eclipse it.
It's called central planning and those cities are filling up. Can anyone even buy a home in America? You guys just let Zillow buy all your family homes?
@@duyataksis5210 it ain't fiction lol
Lex always weaves around the climate/ecology question
Cai Xia, a former professor at the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party. In a 2020 interview, she said, “He (Xi Jinping) doesn’t have much academic background. He only spent a few years at Tsinghua University. After a few years in the countryside, he became a worker-peasant-soldier student. They didn’t really have to study. It was fake, it was just a formality.”
This guys dillusional-
Tofu dreg, empty housing complexes and infrastructure to no where.
It’s a scary thought. Even scarier reality
2022 is going by sooo fast
Progress and advancement in a society does not mean the society is better.
I remember a Chinese old woman in her 60s asked about the old China. She recalled that back then the only worry of the day is getting your stomach full. Then after getting your stomach full, you are happy the whole day and just worry about getting dinner. But after China opened up, everyday her thoughts are about money money money.
I think a good life is somewhere in between.
This guy has been brainwashed
What a brilliant conversation!
Except for the relentlessly agenda pushing Steve on one side of the table.
If you go to China in a big city and walk around in the morning in the rush hour. The energy of the Chinese people is electrifying. These are a billion+ people getting up in the morning trying to get shit done.
That was painful
The Australian internet example is honestly terrible. Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) compared to fibre to the home (FTTH) there are extreme cost savings going with FTTC and you can easily get sufficient speeds with copper from 70-500 Mb/s as demonstrated in the UK. It's a legitimate decision and not at all the reason for Australia's poor internet speeds. Absolute bollocks.
Do you live in Australia? And did you follow the rollout of the NBN? The copper network was basically at end of life. We ended up paying more for a worse product because of political interference.
5G is already faster than NBN. It was always ridiculous to use physical cables in a country as vast and sparsley populated as Australia.
@@cdajfk9219 Sorry what? trying to obscure bad argument behind jargon? You realise we ended up paying Telstra exorbitant amounts to use their copper as well as the constant restructuring over the years because the Liberals sabotage and now after the roll out of the mixed technology everyone cracked the shits at how bad it was and we have now paid twice to get what we should have in the first place and years over due?
Dirigisme works when there are plentiful low-hanging fruits and the state knows what to do. It is absolute atrocious at any form of innovation or revitalization. Creative destruction needs to happen to new market participants can appear, but of course the state-backed monopolies will never be allowed to fail. The free market may grow slower and has its share of hiccups along the way but a state-directed economy will burn brightly before stagnating and fizzling out to die with a whimper.
idk man worked pretty well for the koreans and taiwanese. not to mention for the americans up to the neoliberal turn in the 70s
They get around that by stealing every piece of intellectual property they can possibly get hold of. Apparently Keen thinks this is a good thing.
@@your-mom-irl Have you seen the state of Korean society? They have gutted their own economic and demographic future by consolidating growth and influence into state-backed chaebols.
@@MinecraftMasterNo1 their demographic future? is the state forcing koreans not to fuck? lmao
@@MinecraftMasterNo1 and yet innovation is going strong at Samsung competing with Apple
Just to add to the idiocy Keen describes with Australian broadband scheme, he doesn't mention the hundreds of businesses who retooled to build the network only to find themselves on the edge of financial ruin when the next government pulled the rug out from under them. Everyone understood that the Coalition didn't like the broadband rollout; no one thought they'd be so stupid as to actually sabotage it after it was already underway.
This guys needs to watch some "WhatAltHist" and "Laowhy86" videos.
For real lol Laowhy86 is really good and definitely shows a lot of what's actually going on on China. There is also this channel China Insights thats really good too
hahahahhahahah fuck lmaoooooo
This guy bases his arguments on proven false information, so even the parts that are reasonably true seem like bs because he doesn't understand the facts.
He might be right about human organization is better under totalitarian governance but that's what ppl that back the most evil people in history say, is the meaning of life for us to be organized gears in a machine or to live happy free life's?(I like deciding who what and when I sell my labor for and too)(individual liberty to make decisions on my life without negative consequences put in place by the government is important and America is losing that to your insane form of control, and its not good)
A good future can come both ways, the ppl that argue his beliefs are the ones that think we are not doing perfect, but the goal of perfection leads to death and suffering because we are not a perfect people and will never be.
Keen is a useful idiot. He's not dumb, but gullible. He's gullible because he doesn't do his homework on economic theory, climate science, virology, and probably just about everything he gains an interest in. Doesn't stop him from vocal enthusiasm for very bad ideas, does it?
Not to mention the fact that China is not winning but is, in fact, doomed
godwins law and all that, but his argument is the same as, "the nazi's made the trains run on time".
15:00 China's got a centralized government and is one of the highest polluting countries in the world. I thinks a country's cultural values and views towards the environment are a greater predictor of their environmental policy than their governing style
Nobody's gonna mention Xi was a governor for a smaller province, and then graduated to governor of Fujian province (big and rich province) then graduated to president??
When Aussies explain something it seems a lot more understandable. The accent is so "howyagoinm8"👍🏽🍻
In this case, it's more like, "howyagoinCOMRADE"
As a Chinese I’m very impressed how much this guy knows about China. Lex asked some biased questions of what he thinks China is like, but I can tell he’s not gonna understand this guest unless he actually lives there for a few years. This guy has lived there and felt the difference himself, China is nothing like the picture the western main stream media has portrayed
He is a boomer and a fan of Karl Marx. What do you expect?
You're wrong. You know it, I know it, and nearly every Chinese person knows it. I have friends from Hong Kong so I've heard how bad it can get. No country is perfect, China does have many good things going for it, but it is far and away not a land of free people and that is a problem. Be honest with yourself.
@@sandollor I think what Sunny Day means is that the picture of China in western media isn't correct, which is not to say that life in China is perfect. You should also keep in mind that Hong Kong and mainland China are massively different.
As a Chinese western impressions of China is not exact but it's not far off either.
@@sandollor we all have friends who think they know it all about China. When I came to Canada 20 years ago most people who are mean to mainlanders are from hongkong or Taiwan. They are so biased to the point they discriminate people from mainland. Their media was worse than western media when trying to portray a terrible mainland picture. News channels in Taiwan is very entraining to watch as a Chinese mainlander, it’s full of fake and bullshit stories. But again you have to be able to speak Chinese to know what I’m talking about.
They have a understanding of building the greatest wall that ever stood!
Which only worked because Mongolians were dependent on horseback for war. China then and China today are two entirely different countries. For good and for bad. For bad though in their ambitions and in recent history killing the largest number of people in a single event. Not to mention the Uyghurs, but of all the things that has damaged their reputation, it wasn't human rights but the outbreak of COVID.
The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.
Steve has an unwarranted opinion on the efficacy of engineers. I say that as someone with a few decades of experience in that field. Engineers can conjure up incredible white elephants. The high speed rail system in China is an example of that.
How is high speed rail a white elephant? Seems awesome to me.
love lex's profound questions. I think lex is correct in a big way. Steve Keen seems naive.
your right imop he is very naïve he things china is a socialist country even though it has 0 social programs its a fascist dictatorship and says they are amazing because they can build crazy buildings even though the quality of the building is soo poor because of corruption that goes along with the system so everyone can make money these building keep falling down killing thousands they name them tofu building and tofu bridges ect he forgets half the population thats not in the city live in abject poverty to the standards of the worst african places but with far higher cancer rates because of all the pollution the list goes on and on
Yeah the guy who actually has been to China knows less than Lex. Give me a break.
@@Derbnage he went to china in the 80s and clearly hasnt kept up with reliable sources give me a example of how china is so great please like this guy things its a communist country when its obviously not
What abt those riots, their uncontrollable real estate bubble, and the usa needing a good war to get the economy back booming
It’s crazy how easily people give up on America
Until a couple of years ago I lived in China for 7 years and as important a reason as any behind their capacity to build things quickly is the huge reserve of cheap labor they have with not much attention to union rules and OH&S as far as I can see. I watched a skyscraper going up behind my building everyday for months and you could not get away with treating workers like that in the West. But yes they are good at planning.
They also don’t have to worry about property rights, so they just confiscate your land and build over it.
Also, their quality control is light years behind Japan .
Essentially, in all this time, they have just produced enormous quantities of crap, at shocking ecology cost.
"treating workers like that" lol face it, the Chinese are harder workers than westerners. Look at the Mexicans in American construction sites they work like robots, amazing workers, hustlers, grafters.
@@nigel485 I don't deny that but the safety conditions in China are appalling. They swing around on top of buildings in all conditions, work back breaking hours and on a lot of sites they live in these little shacks with no air conditioning, no heating--try doing that in a Chinese winter.
@@peterabram62 typical stereotypes of Chinese craftsmanship. I live in the UK, our infrastructure is appalling. Have you been on the London underground? Have you seen Heathrow? Gatwick? Its a shame if only our government would spend money on the nation instead of funding wars. Tony Blairs decision to follow Bush into Iraq and Afghanistan was worst decision ever, so much money spent on wars....
Chinese labors are not cheap anymore compared to other developing countris.
"You can't make a profit off of catastrophe with capitalism."
Individualism be damned, huh?
Ummm... Pfizer, moderna.... lol Those defense contractors are doing pretty good right now too. The looming food shortage is why the rich are buying up som much land. Know where to put you saving and a catastrophe could be good for you too.
He said a lot of foolish things in 20mins, but that was mind blowing. Guess he's not paid attention to the pharmaceutical industry in a few years, lol
1million individuals died in the US during COVID
@@iamsheep And...
@@iamsheep *with* COVID and *of* COVID are very different things.
COVID killed very few people on it's own, 95% of deaths had an average of 4 comorbidities, 95% of people were already dying before they got COVID.
A young country that got drunk in its own hubris and going down the drain. Or an ancient civilization that has experienced all forms of chaos and still stood the test of time.
A huge problem with Western societies in general is their inability to put themselves in the shoes of others and realize that their universalist tendencies cannot be shoehorned into societies that are different.
China's debt may eliminate a lot of the preceived pregress.
Steve keen is wrong on so many levels. Lex’s pushback helps reveal what kind of motivation Steve has. It’s not good news to humanity.
hmm interesting. List 1 level?
What a clueless statement.
@@urstube6901 how about when he said we don’t ask an elephant or a cows opinion when we make policies? Or when he said everything is the fault of people who are against big government? Or the fact that he is anti-democracy and prefers a “benevolent” dictator like Xi? He seems to actually think that China is on a better path to fight climate change than the west. Wrong on so many levels.
@@kaiserboludos1117 communist
Imagine being the two guys in the chat room who cheer on a country with concentration camps that harvest peoples organs you got to be a special kind of fucked up to be behind that shit🤡🤡
China can build a Skyscraper in a day, thats cool. But the guy misses the fact it will fall over a week later
32% of their economy is based on construction. They have to maintain these projects otherwise their fragile economy fails. This is why they have, as you suggested, ghost cities. Youth also can't move out due to prices and because the 1950-1980 demographic (vast majority of the population) are entering retirement. The 1-Child Policy demo from 1980-2015 have to support them at a 4.47:1 ratio.
Add the fact that they went from peak population growth in 1968 at 2.86% down to 0.54% by 2016 when the 1-Child Policy ended. The problem is, after 2016, the population continued to drop. As of 2021, it is now 0.29%. The drop was steady from 2016 oddly which shows that it was already falling with or without Covid years later.
With that condition, their construction mandate and ghost cities, they are on the world largest housing bubble. All of this is why they've been so aggressive over the last 8 years. Rage against the dying of the light
@@janus3555 And the constructions are of extremely poor quality, that crumbles within 10-15 years, so live savings of several generation are caught up in a sort of ponzi scheme revolving around the housing market.
This is blatantly false
@@mackyoung1156 ok Wumao
That example was so underwhelming, I was like, "so what?" Building things fast with no respect for human lives and wellfare is not impressive at all. It's poor.
A mixed economic model one where a strong central government ensures free market capitalism can thrive without big public corporations corrupting the political system and rigging the market. And one that can step in when the market fails I.e. environmental issues.
True, but you need a very strong judiciary, uncorrupted, to punish bad actors. Unfortunately it seems like everyone has been purchased.
What Keen (as many others) is very evidently choosing to exclude from his analysis is the extent to which the "low wages" of China, combined with central planning of production is in fact a modern form of state-organized slavery, and how much it explains the Chinese economic miracle.