How Xi Jinping’s authoritarianism is killing China’s economy | Business Beyond

China’s economy has been flashing red on various fronts for the past few years. A severe property crisis and the struggle to emerge from strict pandemic restrictions are routinely blamed for problems ranging from deflation to sluggish growth. But in this episode of Business Beyond, we ask if there are more fundamental reasons behind the world’s second biggest economy’s malaise. Under Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party has become more controlling than at any stage in the past four decades. Does authoritarianism place a cap on economic growth? In this episode we ask if Xi's desire for control at all costs is the main reason why so many people, both within China and outside of it, have lost faith in a global economic powerhouse’s capacity to bounce back.

CHAPTERS

Introduction - 00.00
Double whammy: a pandemic and a property crisis - 01.42
The confidence deficit - 04.25
Is Xi the problem? - 7.37
War of distraction? - 13.31
Demographic disaster - 15.50
A tech dragon? - 17.25
Conclusion - 19.55
Credits: 22.35
Ends: 22.51

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[helenrushful]

Just the idea that you can force companies to sign agreements that hand over all their customer data to the the government on one hand and then be surprised when the rest of the world stops buying and investing in those companies. It’s juvenile

[larsthorwald]

If you're a despotic Emperor, the last thing you want is a free, politically empowered population; you want obedient, loyal minions who worship you. Mao wasn't the least bit bothered by the starving millions around him.

[thom]

Announcing you intend to invade Taiwan is not helpful. It smacks of instability and has Russia like consequences for the economy. Who would invest in that market under those circumstances??

[kevinbyrne]

China has fallen into the "middle income trap". China should have developed its domestic market as it developed its manufacturing sector. But now the cost of Chinese labor is higher than that in Vietnam and India; so foreign investment is leaving Earth's largest prison. Xi Jinping is worsening a bad situation: he threatens war with Taiwan; he tightens his grip on power; he prolongs the problems which were caused by the bursting of the real estate bubble (and spreads the problems to the banking sector); he pours money into the already excessively large manufacturing sector; he continues to pour money into useless infrastructure projects; he scares away foreign investors; ... the list is almost endless.

[richardwills-woodward]

Those demographic numbers are way, way out! They will lose 300 million by 2050 and 6-700 million by 2100. Those are Shanghai and Beijing University numbers. The 2050 population is expected to be 1 billion people. The over all population drop isn't even the story, it's the far worse (if that was possible) working age population. They are extinct in any meaningful sense. There will few people to consume and be educated enough to do so, and that assumes everything goes right! Also needs to be mentioned absolutely nobody believes the population numbers. If you look at ALL the evidence, the best guess is 1.3 billion in 2024, some say 1.280bn. There are 100m people that don't exist that were in the numbers faked by provinces for reasons of funding.

[ArabicReja]

Chinese 🇨🇳 property sector, which accounts for 30% of GDP, is crashing.
- Exports and imports, accounting for 37% GDP, are down.
- Foreign investment (FDI) is falling over 90%, lowest in 3 decades.
- Foreign visitors are down 96% compared to the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
- Consumer prices are experiencing deflation.
- Youth unemployment hits over 21%, a record.
- Its fast-shrinking workforce is 10 years older than neighboring countries.
*Still, China keeps reporting outrageous GDP numbers.* Lol
Where does the growth come from?

[hapah]

Many Chinese people were buying and flipping real estate properties,
but that sector has cratered, leaving many people holding the bags.

[chrisnolan]

Who could have guess that autocratic rule would wreck an economy😂😂

[deehazsnow]

Taking out Jack Ma sent a very very very bad economic signal

[csmicbyte]

One-Child Policy (1979-2015) may be an Achilles Heel, not only of China's economy but, also of its military. If a war erupts involving the Chinese military, every Chinese military personnel killed or maimed in battle would produce two unsupported senior parents inside China, plus the grief of the loss of a single child. It may be fair to assume that a large majority of the Chinese military personnel at this time are single children, and the multiple losses of these personnel would have a psychologically destabilizing impact on the Chinese population.

[mateobravo]

Liked this format. Just the right amount of concise and analyst insight with minimal drama. Greetings from Spain.

[concernedcitizens]

There are similarities between China and Japan. The declining birth/fertility rate, the set up for a ‘lost decade’ and economic stagnation. However Japan have a much better capacity to deal with this issue as it’s already set up itself as an advanced economy and they’re also a liberal democracy that is part of Western Alliance in Asia alongside Australia, South Korea, New Zealand and maybe even India. In conclusion China’s crises could be even more dire than what Japan has experienced.

[naguoning]

"without underpaying their workers" ummm do you understand why consumption is so low??

[bkloqfo]

No company wants to come, all want to leave, splendid.

[jimmahoney]

Fear of investing. Fear of going to jail forever.

[PhillCurtis]

More videos with this format but on a range of topics 👍 hello 👋 from the UK

[valtyger]

They are the master of deceiving that lasts long. Also the world is fooled from greedy expectation. Giving too much credit to dishonest liars!

[stuartdevaan]

Innovation comes from the freedom to trade and share ideas. Authoritarian systems have never been good at nurturing these freedoms and always fail. We are working hard here in the USA to make sure that authoritarianism doesn't take hold here with Trump and MAGA

[aspendesign]

That was excellent. Thank you for providing such an accessible view of the Chinese situation. Really. Well done.

[myphone]

It's not "economic long covid", it's standard economic hysteresis.

If you put a tourniquet on a limb for multiple days until it gets gangrene, restoring circulation does not improve matters. Xi killed a whole bunch of businesses and put people out of work with hard lockdowns: shattered supply chains, drained savings, bankrupt tenants no longer able to pay rent... Then threw everybody back in the pool to sink or swim, expecting everyone to seamlessly pick up where they left off after THREE YEARS away. Their economy went into septic shock.