GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
Remember the Western narrative. “China has to fail; it is a Marxist state. It cannot succeed in creating prosperity”. Prejudice is an obstacle to analysis.
Bear in mind that China has, quite remarkably, kept Covid deaths down to 4,500 on a population of 1.4bn. The People have been Protected. The death figures for US+UK are close to 2m on a joint population of 0.5bn. The People have not been Protected.
The West’s reactions are to hope for people unrest in China so it focuses on contraction of the economy. The FT today reports that China expanded 0.4% year on year in the three months to the end of June 2022, below the 1.2% forecast by economists, and down from the 4.8% recorded in the first quarter. “Beijing’s battle to eradicate coronavirus outbreaks has relied on months of snap lockdowns + heavy-handed restrictions on mobility, dragging on the pace of China’s economic recovery. The 0.4% result marked China’s second-worst quarterly growth figure in 30 years, following a contraction at the start of the pandemic. With first-half growth at 2.5%, Beijing is expected to miss its target of about 5.5% annual growth for 2022, itself a three-decade low” rejoices the FT
The West celebrates; “These data highlight the unfavourable domestic + external circumstances that, in tandem with the government’s zero-Covid strategy, are squeezing economic activity + emphasise the dire need for short-term policy measures to revive growth,” said Eswar Prasad, economics professor at Cornell University and former head of the IMF’s China division.
In fact, the West misrepresents China. The actual priority is to protect the people and defeat Covid. Growth sacrificed can be retrieved as China emerges Covid free from its firm measures of people protection. So, no chaos – no anti-government protests – no over-worked Crematoria.
If you want the truth about China, you cannot rely on Sky or Bloomberg or the FT. Dig around for the truth – it is there.
NEXT POST #431 18 JULY 2022
