The app for independent voices

Regarding Hong Kong - Although it was obviously expected and the motives are clear - I don't think it's a smart move from China's side. Given the events of the past year and a half maybe they had no choice from their perspective - but looking at the bigger picture, they have more to benefit from keeping HK "free" then they will from effectively (to the rest of the world) killing its autonomy as they did.

Regarding the 5 year plan - one cannot underestimate how different the mindset is with this plan compared to previous ones. They've hit the right points from their perspective in my opinion, and the question would be how they execute it - especially under the challenging present circumstances. Althgouh the 5 year plan has no clear GDP targets - It will be interesting to see if they will set yearly ones on an annual basis like 2021, and if they do - will they be lower than ever in China terms (my guess - 3-4% if they do). Their acknowledgment of the severity of the debt problem and focus on quality will be challenging in the current global environment, but one interesting potential path I think they might prusue is to keep gov investments high (they have no choice, at least in the near future) - but instead of infrastructure - spend ludicrous, unprecedented sums on technological and scientific research in the very expensive areas they target - Semiconductor, Quantum, Space etc. When I say ludicrous I mean trillions over the 5 year period. This would be unprecedented but if done right (very difficult...) can hit so many of their goals in one play.

Lastly about the translation - there are far better Chinese language experts than me here, but to me it always sounded like Xi's version of "Make China Great Again", and maybe can be translated as the "National's greatness". :) Don't take me too seriously on this one :)

Mar 12, 2021
at
1:59 PM