A story of GDP growth? Or maybe the story of the world’s most robust emerging middle class? Perhaps a story of gradual geopolitical dominance progress? There a quite a few headlines which describe China’s post-1978 journey. Yet an equally important one tends to receive less attention, the story of China’s massive urbanization, with its various
Macroeconomics
19
Jul
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The Future of China’s Future: The Chinese Education System
It’s a quasi-axiom that by investing in its education system, a country is essentially investing in its future. From (relatively distant) historic examples such as Adam’s Smith work back in 1776 (when he claimed that the wealth of a nation lies not in the resources it can exploit but rather in the productive capacity of
18
Jul
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The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB): WB/IMF Threat or Complementary Solution?
It’s not even a matter of debate that China’s political influence has gone up tremendously, not just in the Asia-Pacific region but globally as well, with China reaching out in a meaningful manner to pretty much all geopolitical players, including African nations. However, this political influence frequently comes with a price tag, one that can
17
Jul
Jul
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China’s Military Sector: From Modernization to Tackling Corruption
For an extended period of time, before Deng Xiaoping’s post-1978 reforms started kicking in, the Chinese military industry was best described by insiders as being in a “golden rice bowl” situation or in other words, receiving a significant percentage of China’s GDP but always somehow needing more and asking for more. Deng Xiaoping decided it
14
Jul
Jul
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What the Gross Domestic Product Does and Doesn’t Tell Us About China
China’s GDP, with its projected value for 2019 at around $14.2 trillion according to the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, makes it clear we’re dealing with an economic superpower. According to the same source, China’s GDP is expected to grow by over $1 trillion each year until 2023 and most likely beyond. While it
10
Jul
Jul
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Socialism with Chinese Characteristics?
First and foremost, it’s important to make it clear that no, there’s no such thing as “communism” in China, nor has there ever actually been communism anywhere else according to the definition(s) of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels et al. because in the equation the thinkers in question envisioned, communism was the final stage… and we
10
Jul
Jul
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China’s Agriculture Sector: Past, Present and Future
You can say a lot about the development of a nation by analyzing its agriculture sector, more specifically the percentage of its GDP represented by agriculture. In China’s case, the fact that agriculture went from representing roughly 50% of China’s GDP prior to Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 reforms to less than 10% at this point, with
09
Jul
Jul
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Making Sense of China’s Government Debt Sustainability (or Lack Thereof)
According to the most recent IMF data that is available (their April 2019 World Economic Outlook dataset), the general government gross debt of China as a percentage of its GDP is 55.4%, which seems remarkably low if you compare it to many of the world’s most developed nations. In fact, China’s gross debt to GDP
08
Jul
Jul
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The Great Recession (Global Financial Crisis) of 2007-2008 and Its Effect on China
The Great Recession (or Global Financial Crisis, if you prefer this terminology) of 2007-2008 (in)famously had its origins in the United States. More specifically, everyone went crazy when it came to real estate in the US: the average consumer bought more than he could afford to by taking advantage of the easily available mortgage packages,
08
Jul
Jul
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Could China Win a Trade War Against the United States?
In light of the (relatively) recent concerns surrounding the possibility of trade tensions between China and the United State escalating in a dramatic manner, a lot of observers are undoubtedly asking themselves whether or not a trade war can actually be won. So, could China win a trade war against the United States? Yes. Could