China’s economy keeling over. Vast swathes of the Chinese population currently has covid apparently, as it finally sweeps through China.
A correspondent of David Archibald writes:
To say Chinese economy is in contraction is an understatement. It’s more like collapsing. …
The economic contraction or collapsing will not have much impact on the CCP arms race with the USA. The totalitarian regime is able to focus on military expansion at the cost of rapidly declining people’s livelihood, something Western countries cannot do and even don’t believe the CCP can do.
Oh, they surely can and will do. Xi Jinping models himself on Qin Shihuangdi, the first Chinese absolute monarch over 2000 years ago. His policy was to exploit and oppress his people to the maximum in order to build a superior military force, with which he conquered the warring states (or dukedoms) and unified China under his rule.
David Archibald:
WA is leveraged to the iron ore market which is leveraged to Chicom apartment building, which is now offering 50% discounts to move stock.
Lockdown ensured factories still ran (workers lived in the factory “closed circle” bubbles). Now, everyone is actually sick and cannot work.
And:
The crisis officially emerged last year and its severity has been steadily worsening. It’s highly likely that numerous financial institutions will require government intervention. Considering the magnitude of this collapse, it will take China many years or even decades to recover
