Ehh this article is poorly argued, there’s way better writing on China’s economic performance.
The author starts by just ranting about things they dislike (DEI initiatives, preventing the spread of a pandemic) rather than building a case for these factors being causal. It’s also got some casual/unaddressed anti-communism in it.
Yeah I’ve seen better articles as well, but I find an admission of chauvinism from a source that’s clearly biased in this way is itself interesting. Seems like it’s finally starting to dawn on western mainstream that China isn’t an inferior who can only copy from them.
yeah, read against the grain there are some useful insights and it’s certainly a weathervane for how the more business savvy people in the west are beginning to see China. Still, I don’t think the author has a good understanding for what is causing a drain on productivity in the west (i.e., i don’t think it’s COVID measures and DEI) and so I’d take their other analyses with a heavy grain of salt too.
For sure, for me the most interesting part was to see that business people are starting to realize that the narrative about China isn’t holding up. In terms of actual analysis, I completely agree that it’s been done much better by smarter people.