How China became the world's industrial superpower - and why the US is desperate to stop it

China has gone from one of the poorest countries on Earth to building the world's largest economy, responsible for nearly one-third of global manufacturing. Meanwhile, the US de-industrialized and financialized its economy. Journalist Ben Norton explains how.

|| Geopolitical Economy Report ||

[F_Liu]

Just need to make a point, don't blame China/Chinese people for the transfer/loss of US/Western manufacturing jobs, blame the greed of your capitalists. The Chinese worked hard under the CPC leadership who transformed China with its pragmatic economic policies and people centered political ideology. The Chinese deserve ALL the credits for their success of today.

[mcintyre]

It is gone, we lived through the zenith of our time.The corrupt government will take down this country like what happened to Rome. My condolence for anyone approaching retirement you may have concerns over whether your pension pot will stretch to cover the rising costs of living. Bad energy policy, bad foreign policy, bad regulatory policy, and insane fiscal policy

[utubewonderer]

As someone who was born in China I'm pretty happy with the direction China is going. Not saying everything is perfect, no country/system is perfect but I have confidence that the trajectory is upwards. i.e. my generation lives better than my parents', the next generation will live better than mine. This is what anyone can ask for in any country/system.
Chinese believe every generation has its own goal/mission to accomplish and I think my parents' generation did accomplish theirs quite well. I hope mine can be equally as successful.

[alexsteven.m]

Some economists have projected that both the U.S. and parts of Europe could slip into a recession for a portion of 2023. A global recession, defined as a contraction in annual global per capita income, is more rare because China and emerging markets often grow faster than more developed economies. Essentially the world economy is considered to be in recession if economic growth falls behind population growth.

[Teddyclaws]

It fascinates me to see recent footage of China because I visited Beijing, Xian and Shanghai in 1989, and the changes that have taken place in the three decades since then are astonishing. China's development has been extraordinary.

[markmahan]

It should be noted that China has held the status of being the largest and most wealthy economy 4 times in history. Not only that but China also held the position of being the most technological society also in those 4 periods. So it should be not a rise to economic prominence. But a return to the world as a economic powerhouse.

[susanzhong]

Lifting so many people out of poverty is a great feat

Women’s right also improved after the 1949 revolution. My grandma was sold as a child bride to a one year old baby boy. She worked as his nanny until the day he grow up. She was only 7 by then. After 1949, the new government sent women’s association members to her village and told her that the contract sold her was void and no person should be sold like that anymore. She then went back to her home and announced that she was no longer a future bride but a sister to the little groom. To improve her situation at home, the women’s Association also taught her read and write so she could be independent. It took the women’s Association years to educate women’s freedom in China and they worked restlessly in the beginning because they were working against thousands of years of Chinese tradition.

[sunso]

As a Chinese person born in Taiwan in 1985. I would like to point out a few other points. The century of shame to large extend was ended in 1911 when the Sun Yat-sen；Father of modern China overthrew Qing dynasty. He was very vocal in pushing for modernization of China industries and trying to fully bring the regional warlords into a cohesive government. 1945 marked the full liberation of China from imperialist colonial powers (Japan). And in 1949 the civil war marked the almost total reunification if China, the warlords were destroyed, disbanded, or pledged loyalty to the central government.
There was only a few piece of China that was still controlled by other administrations, such as Taiwan Provice by Nationalist remnants, Macao, Hong Kong due to land lease aggreements.
I look forward to the day Taiwan, the last missing piece of China can rejoin the motherland.

[BhavanaShivu]

India allowed foreign companies to come and establish industry. The worst outcome of this is exemplified by Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984 when a gas leak from a plant set by Union Carbide caused thousands of people to die in a single day. Exploitation at its worst. India has become a worst capitalist. Recently Farmers in India put up a huge protest as Indian government allowed Monsanto to enter India and ruin large portions of land. Indian people are really unhappy and our government completely aligns with US is it’s war against China. I wish India instead joins China to make Global south strong and break US hegemony.

[dannychu]

Great video! If only the average American would understand everything that was mentioned here and thus will understand it was not China but the US as the caused for their own demise. This way the US as a whole can work on untangling the internal issues at hand rather than just blaming and demonizing China.

[Mohamed-fluv]

What an amazing channel. Watched the full 55 minutes in one go and even had to replay some parts to fully understand it. Fantastic job. How you do not have over a million subscribers I will never know. But, at least you're on the way to it. All the best.

[charliedeng]

You explained Chinese recent history, politics and economics accurately. It’s amazing that a foreign journalist could explain the complicated movement having occurred in China so well.

[genovasei]

The world needs more journalist like Ben Norton to provide accurate reporting of what is going on in this world.

[karlchen]

Many people believe that China became a capitalist country after 1978. As mentioned in the video, this is a misconception. China is still a socialist country, and the state-owned economy still holds a dominant position. In 2021, Tencent paid over 3 billion US dollars in taxes, Huawei paid over 13 billion in taxes, and the state-controlled tobacco company in China contributed nearly 200 billion US dollars in taxes. The revenue of the tobacco company is equivalent to China's military expenditure. Not to mention the infrastructure and energy companies which are also controlled by country.

[john-sshk]

Thank you Ben for such a wonderful, well prepared and informative lecture on the subject. You are my favorite on YT overnight! A quality channel that I will recommend unreservedly to all .

[FallenLeavesBackToRoots]

After the founding of the PRC, China also did land reform, liberation of women, reduction of illiteracy, eradication of opium use and prostitution, and other social reforms. Although China was still poor, the society was very different from that of most developing countries. When China started the economic reform, the country had a well organized, relatively healthy, and reasonably educated population.

[silvioapires]

Ben NEVER apologise for “a long episode” because no matter how short or “long” they are I, and I’m CERTAIN a LOT of people here, always go “Oh bummer it’s ending!” You are an amazing journalist we all always learn so much listening/reading your work! Keep just doing what you do!😊👊🏼

[TimePeace]

The best part of China's growth is that China has done it without endless wars, regime changes, sanction, subversive foreign interference.

China's trade and investments are welcome by emerging economies as impetus to their own economic developments.

On the other hand, US has been only interested in exploiting the resources of emerging economies leaving them perpetually poor and in debt to IMF and the World Bank without the prospect of recovering.

[tryftryf]

Something that I find very interesting is that common people around the globe have stopped viewing the us as the world's superpower for quite a while now. And I am not sure that Americans are aware of this.