I found this post in my drafts folder, but I thought it was worth putting up because I recently had a ‘discussion’ with a client about how the World’s economic power had truly returned to China.
Returned?
Yes, because the West was only the dominant power for the past few hundred years and – as we all know – that is definitely not the case anymore.
Of course many people will say that China has achieved that power by exploiting its people and foreign investors so they can go out and buy, buy, buy – and while there is more than an element of truth to all that – I would remind people that [1] there’s a hell of a lot of people/companies who exploited China’s cheap manufacturing for their own gain [2] there’s a hell of a lot of foreign brands that are, in essence, culturally blackmailing Chinese citizens into paying premium prices for average products and [3] no company/Government has had a gun put to their head was forced to sell.
Sure, it’s a very complicated situation – with many twists, turns and perspectives – but I do get very sick of certain people’s myopic view that China is a nation of evil without ever looking in their own backyard.
Anyway, that all aside, the Heritage Federation of America recently put up an interactive map that tracks China’s global investments.
It’s amazing and – if you’re a foreign government – frightening, however as I said earlier, the issue isn’t that it’s happened, it’s why it’s happened and how you need to deal with it rather than just fighting against it.
That approach could be adopted for more than just addressing China’s increasing influence couldn’t it.