Western policy wonks intentionally "misunderstand" China

China energy expert David Fishman penned a masterful analysis and refutation of the theory that China is closing the path that earlier generations of developing countries took to industrialization. This theory is all the rage in western policy circles and most recently espoused in a wildly shared article in Foreign Affairs. David's article is well worth a read for anyone interested in China and its development.

David's article is a good faith effort to address the arguments made by people holding this theory, the facts are he sees them and come to a conclusion. The problem is that the people espousing this theory are not operating in the realm of good faith and facts. Instead, Western dialogue starts with the conclusion they have in mind- "China is a problem. China is bad." - and cherry picks or invents facts to concoct a narrative that supports their conclusion.

The high-level issue is that US is in a fiscal bind that everyone has known about for decades, spending more money than it can afford thanks to the power of the fiat money printer. For decades, China enabled Americans' extravagant lifestyles, accepting pieces of green paper for real world physical goods created by hard work and sweat. But the price Americans paid was not just their toilet paper fiat money, but also the hollowing out of American industrial capacity and capability. The country is like the college student that had a blast skipping class and partying throughout the semester only to find reality hit when faced with the final exam. American invented the rules of the game and China played the game and won. But instead of manning up and taking the F on the exam and studying harder next time, the US is trying to blow up the classroom.

Instead of soberly analyzing the situation and the possible paths forward, the western propaganda class generates plausible-sounding, highly-intellectual policy cope whose main goal is to reassure elites that they are definitely not the baddies and to generate support for ultimately self-owning policies. They don't want to understand China...if they did, they would be living here and not in places like Washington DC. Drinking one's on kool-aid isn't a winning strategy.