Empty Hand

It's interesting that China should feature at least three times in today's Financial Times: in the editorial, an op-ed byline, and a piece on higher education. The op-ed was written by one Ray Dalio, a longstanding visitor to the country and Sinophile and hedge fund founder of Bridgewater Associates. He, more than most Western commentators I've read in recent years, has an understanding of both Chinese history and philosophy, and the country and its people's current place within the world's economic system; even quoting Sun Tzu: '...to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill...'. Not to seek an empire through imperialist expansionism, but to accrete influence through trade. Making your nation indispensable to the world's economy is infinitely wiser than waging territorial war for gain, as pretty much every imperialist nation on earth has learned to its cost over time.

There is much to learn from this. Instead of carping on about China's state subsidisation of its industries being somehow an unfair advantage on the world business stage, think on; they are doing something that works on every known and considered front in the capitalist 'free world': they are collectively highly competitive and they have all but cornered the biggest and most important market on the planet:- green energy. Whilst economists in the West wring their collective hands over what response they should propose to counter the approaching Chinese hegemony in, for instance, Solar EV panel and electric vehicle supply; the Chinese simply get on with manufacture and trade. Everyone else is playing catch-up in their wake whilst futilely chasing unicorns and heading for the stars.

Are the Chinese bullish about this in the way that Trump is about pretty much everything? Of course not; they hold all the cards, to use one of Trump's favourite phrases. Whilst here at home in the UK, we can't even face the fact they we need to be part of the larger European economy if we are even to survive economically over the next few years, let alone decades; having been left out in the cold by the good old U.S of A. Yes there is so much wrong with the way China is run, but it would be extremely disingenuous of anyone to suggest that all Western countries operate from any kind of ethical and moral high ground, at any level. The raw fact is that the mixed economy of China is simply exceedingly successful at this point in history, and to be frank, China has more history, philosophy and culture behind it than any other nation on earth.