In light of economists' views of the Chinese economy , here is my layperson's view, or a simplistic street view, of the economy of China.  The following contribute to the growth of the economy: 1. ⬆️ number of people working. 2. ⬆️productivity 3. ⬆️portion of people doing useful things. Here is what I see: 1. ⬇️number of people working. The official youth unemployment rate is 19.3%. The real number is likely much higher. The PRC does not count migrant workers who go back home after losing jobs in cities. There has been a large wave of them. 2. ⬇️productivity. I am willing to believe technologies are still increasing their productivity. However, the PRC is undoubtedly regressing toward cultural revolution steadily. People familiar with the CR era know how political activities can suppress productivity.  For example, during the CR, half a day was devoted to political study everywhere every week. I have heard they have started to bring this back. Intensifying political inter...

I will argue the inevitability of the CCP's malicious behavior by borrowing its own ideological methodology. I often come to the same conclusion about the CCP's behaviors as many others but with a different approach. Many assume that the CCP has long-term devilish plans and everything they do just follows a plan devised a long time. They may have long-term thinking but I doubt it is as significant as many believe. For example, I doubt the power concentration of Xi (a.k.a., the middle school dropout) and the wolf warrior Xiplomacy was in the long-term plan by Deng or Jiang. I actually believe Deng meant it when he spoke to the UN assembly that China would never seek hegemony. However, I also believe China seeking hegemony is inevitable.  Like everyone in my generation, I went through the mandatory brainwashing with historical materialism. A key tenet of historical materialism is the inevitability of a certain historical course - capitalism replaced by socialism that leads to the...