Listen now | Beijing just released its most detailed rebuttal yet to accusations from the West around industrial overcapacity – and it pointedly avoided using the very word that started the fight in the first place.
Involution is coined by the scholar Xiang Biao who is based in Germany. He is a long term researcher of how labours are treated in China. He came from the perspectives of labour. People are exhausted by the cutting throat competition which involves great efforts but for much less gains. This is not a political choice. He was just observing the world and made a theory about it. The Chinese students and academia love it. But this term was never officially endorsed.
It’s quite interesting to listen to Dinny’s reasoning on Chinese consumptions and exports.
Two questions:
1). Chinese not spending? My observations are that Chinese are spending lots: food, clothings, entertainments, tourism, etc. comparing to 30 or 40 years ago, average Chinese are spending 10x or more than those years:
2). Chinese are not importing enough for their own consumptions? Not really. Chinese do spend a lots of money on foreign goods and services such as iPhones, BMW, Starbucks, MacDonal’s, soybeans, as long as they are in good quality and reasonable prices. Any foreign goods that are competitive in China market are welcome by its consumers.
The reality is that, however, foreign goods are becoming less and less competitive, in China market, as domestic producers can quality goods at a fraction cost of foreign goods. China doesn’t have high inflations in US and EU.
Chinese are smarter - they are not interested in overpricing foreign goods any more.
I’d ask Dinny - can you name one consumer product that has high quality and reasonable pricing, which Chinese consumers are not consuming?
Involution is coined by the scholar Xiang Biao who is based in Germany. He is a long term researcher of how labours are treated in China. He came from the perspectives of labour. People are exhausted by the cutting throat competition which involves great efforts but for much less gains. This is not a political choice. He was just observing the world and made a theory about it. The Chinese students and academia love it. But this term was never officially endorsed.
It’s quite interesting to listen to Dinny’s reasoning on Chinese consumptions and exports.
Two questions:
1). Chinese not spending? My observations are that Chinese are spending lots: food, clothings, entertainments, tourism, etc. comparing to 30 or 40 years ago, average Chinese are spending 10x or more than those years:
2). Chinese are not importing enough for their own consumptions? Not really. Chinese do spend a lots of money on foreign goods and services such as iPhones, BMW, Starbucks, MacDonal’s, soybeans, as long as they are in good quality and reasonable prices. Any foreign goods that are competitive in China market are welcome by its consumers.
The reality is that, however, foreign goods are becoming less and less competitive, in China market, as domestic producers can quality goods at a fraction cost of foreign goods. China doesn’t have high inflations in US and EU.
Chinese are smarter - they are not interested in overpricing foreign goods any more.
I’d ask Dinny - can you name one consumer product that has high quality and reasonable pricing, which Chinese consumers are not consuming?