[HN Gopher] China's manufacturers are going broke
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       China's manufacturers are going broke
        
       Author : campuscodi
       Score  : 81 points
       Date   : 2024-08-17 14:18 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.economist.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.economist.com)
        
       | skullone wrote:
       | Paywall
        
         | wslh wrote:
         | Fix: https://archive.is/mwnRq
        
       | klyrs wrote:
       | https://archive.is/d56oU
        
       | andrewl wrote:
       | Their audio version of the article is free at:
       | 
       | https://www.economist.com/media-assets/audio/062%20Business%...
        
       | lenerdenator wrote:
       | Well, if they want to learn from the US, they should ship their
       | manufacturing capacity and intellectual property off to their
       | geopolitical rival for short-term monetary gain.
        
         | derefr wrote:
         | China was actually trying to heavily establish offshoring in
         | the Philippines--but that has seemingly dried up with the
         | increasing South China Sea tensions.
        
           | alephnerd wrote:
           | Same with India before 2020 - China used to be India's
           | largest FDI partner before the Galwan crisis.
           | 
           | After that, the Indian government "persuaded" Chinese players
           | to sell off their Indian assets to Indian, Taiwanese, Korean,
           | Japanese, and American players instead.
           | 
           | 4 years later, the GlobalTimes - which was extremely
           | provocative against India - has started pushing out content
           | arguing that India should begin reopening it's economy to
           | Chinese players.
        
             | Gibbon1 wrote:
             | I swear a lot of wars get started by guys like Xi who after
             | seizing power internally try to seize power externally and
             | it often ends really really badly for the host country.
             | 
             | Seriously, the leader of Germany in the 1930's, Stalin,
             | Putin, Saddam Hussein, now Xi. All seized power
             | domestically and then couldn't help themselves when it came
             | to neighboring countries.
        
               | para_parolu wrote:
               | Obviously this is heated topic, but did it ends really
               | bad for USSR under Stalin rule (until his death)? I mean
               | it was bad for many citizens but other areas were
               | actually ok-ish considering war destructions.
               | 
               | I'm not trying to make point about Stalin. Just trying to
               | find if this is really a rule, but my historical
               | knowledge is pretty limited. Intuitively I feel any
               | overpowered political entity end up like shit. But
               | interesting to see real data.
        
               | hkpack wrote:
               | Of course it was bad. But the point was about starting
               | wars.
               | 
               | Stalin did start many wars, disastrous invasion of
               | Finland, invasion of Poland, Molotov-Ribentrop pact with
               | Germany and so on.
        
               | Gibbon1 wrote:
               | You could imagine an alternate universe where Stalin gets
               | dysentery and dies. The USSR tells Ribentrop to f'off.
               | And then joins the allies declaring war on Germany when
               | Hitler invades Poland.
               | 
               | Also I forgot to add Mussolini and his designs on Greece,
               | Balkans, North and the Horn of Africa.
        
               | petre wrote:
               | If you ask the Russians the Brezhnyev rule was the best
               | (stability, stagnation), with Stalin trailing him (won
               | WW2, rapid industrialization). If you ask westeners,
               | Khrushchev (space race, reforms) and Gorbachev
               | (glasnost).
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_Leonid_Brezhnev
        
           | marcosdumay wrote:
           | Looks like militarism and imperialism are not compatible at
           | that crazy new 21th century world.
           | 
           | IMO, that's a good development. I hope it lasts.
        
             | ein0p wrote:
             | Uh, and what would that mean for the United States? China
             | hasn't been at war with anyone for decades.
        
               | daliusd wrote:
               | Militarism and imperialism is not about wars only
        
               | ein0p wrote:
               | Ah I see. "It's OK when we do it?"
        
               | BobbyJo wrote:
               | Confused about what point you're attempting to make here?
               | 
               | Political conflict with a trade partner obviously leads
               | to reduced trade, no matter the parties involved. What
               | part of that statement are you taking issue with?
        
               | ein0p wrote:
               | > Looks like militarism and imperialism are not
               | compatible at that crazy new 21th century world
               | 
               | Your faux confusion isn't really impressing anyone. Is
               | the US, the most militarist and imperialist nation in the
               | world by far at the moment, "compatible" with the "crazy
               | new 21st century world"?
               | 
               | I've also yet to see any practical examples of Chinese
               | militarism or imperialism. I keep hearing that it's going
               | to start happening any day now, but then it never does.
               | What I do see is the hegemon (the US) trying to take down
               | a rising superpower via economic warfare, and by creating
               | instability in the region - a typical behavior of a
               | militarist and imperialist nation.
        
               | salawat wrote:
               | Hong Kong. Or the many "shadow CCP police" instances in
               | other sovereign nations.
               | 
               | Or did you just conveniently ignore those? Just because
               | they don't wear uniforms and march in lines doesn't mean
               | there isn't power projection going on.
        
               | luuurker wrote:
               | You've pointed out what the US is doing. That's good, but
               | you're clearly biased, so let me tell you two things that
               | China is doing that is contributing for that instability
               | you've mentioned: claims in the south china sea that no
               | country would accept if it was done to them and a major
               | naval build up.
               | 
               | You need two to tango and both the US and China are
               | dancing right now. Anyone only blaming one side need to
               | stop for a second, take their US or China tinted glasses,
               | and look again at the problem.
        
               | Nevermark wrote:
               | > You need two to tango [...]
               | 
               | > Anyone only blaming one side need to stop for a second
               | [...]
               | 
               | When it comes to military coercion (wars, threats), and
               | imperialism, it only takes one bad actor to cause
               | problems.
               | 
               | When there are two sides, or three, it just means more
               | actors willing to push around everyone else.
               | 
               | Albeit, they amplify each other. Their respective needs
               | to dominate encourage each others' aggressive tendencies.
               | And it is much easier to justify/ignore/repeat
               | misbehaviors when there are other aggressors to point at.
        
               | ein0p wrote:
               | Take a look at a map of US bases around China and then
               | try to find any Chinese bases near the US, and you'll
               | understand who's "militarist" and who isn't.
        
               | Terr_ wrote:
               | That's evidence of having more allies than China, not
               | evidence of being more militaristic than China.
        
               | illiac786 wrote:
               | Who is saying the US is the most imperialist and the most
               | militarist country? They do have the highest military
               | budget, I'll give you that. What else?
        
               | ein0p wrote:
               | Approximately 1 million victims (mostly civilian) just in
               | this century, with trillions spent on wars. Multiple
               | continuous wars since WW2. Iraq (2x), Afghanistan, Libya,
               | Syria, Yugoslavia, Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama,
               | Somalia, Haiti. Multiple proxy wars on top of that. Need
               | I continue?
        
               | illiac786 wrote:
               | oh, I don't debate the US have done quite a bite of
               | imperialism and horrible things.
               | 
               | I'm talking about today though.
        
               | BobbyJo wrote:
               | Its not faux. I'm genuinely asking what about the
               | original comment you disagreed with. It didn't really
               | have anything to do with what you're talking about, so,
               | Im wondering what connection you're trying to make.
               | 
               | Do you think political conflict makes trade better, and
               | are using the US as an example? It doesn't seem like
               | you're disagreeing with the original premise, but rather
               | just aggressively responding with a tangent.
        
               | marcosdumay wrote:
               | The countries you keep invading are not your key
               | economical partners.
        
             | uoaei wrote:
             | The US government has put a lot of effort into isolating
             | China from the Phillippines. It's just statecraft and
             | covert influence campaigns, nothing to do with the moral
             | supremacy of anti-imperialism.
             | 
             | Moralizing arguments such as this one are FUD.
        
               | dareal wrote:
               | totally agree, you have to so naive to believe it's not
               | US gov's influence that's maneuvering this behind the
               | scene, just like in Japan, South Korea and other China's
               | neighboring countries.
        
               | BobbyJo wrote:
               | So tensions between China and the Philippines have
               | nothing to do with China's actions and are just the U.S.
               | performing a psyop?
        
               | greyw wrote:
               | Or maybe its just that china demands all of south china
               | sea for itself up to the phillipine coast. Ah no that
               | must be the fault of the USA too! /s
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_South_China
               | _Se...
        
               | fdschoeneman wrote:
               | It's almost as if they're making their comments from a
               | place where they are unable to read about these Chinese
               | Navy military activities.
        
               | fdschoeneman wrote:
               | This comment ignores the facts of Chinese naval
               | activities that many of their neighbors, including the
               | Philippines, are wary of. You can say that US diplomacy
               | is taking advantage of these facts in a way you don't
               | like, but pretending the facts do not exist makes it
               | necessary for people who do know them to ignore you.
        
               | quohort wrote:
               | > It's just statecraft and covert influence campaigns
               | 
               | I'm sure that has something to do with it, but such
               | campaigns are catalyzed by china's military aggression in
               | the south pacific. Morality is an afterthought.
        
               | aragonite wrote:
               | This is just one example that's come to light, as
               | reported by Reuters:
               | 
               | https://archive.is/ZlCmK
               | 
               | Note:
               | 
               | > Unlike earlier psyop missions, which sought specific
               | tactical advantage on the battlefield, the post-9/11
               | operations hoped to create broader change in public
               | opinion across entire regions.
               | 
               | > ...
               | 
               | > Nevertheless, the Pentagon's clandestine propaganda
               | efforts are set to continue. In an unclassified strategy
               | document last year, top Pentagon generals wrote that the
               | U.S. military could undermine adversaries such as China
               | and Russia using "disinformation spread across social
               | media, false narratives disguised as news, and similar
               | subversive activities [to] weaken societal trust by
               | undermining the foundations of government."
        
           | petre wrote:
           | Good luck with that. The Philippines has aligned with the US
           | for some time and water gunning their fishermen doesn't help
           | either.
           | 
           | They should try to outsource to their colonies in Central
           | Asia instead.
        
           | fspeech wrote:
           | I've never sensed any real desire for China to offshore to
           | the Philippines, given its military alliance with the US.
           | Maybe they dangle the prospect from time to time to try to
           | pry the Philippines away. They have much friendlier targets
           | in Southeast Asia, with Thailand and Malaysia at the top of
           | the list.
        
         | philipov wrote:
         | Those places are Vietnam and Africa, and it's already
         | happening.
        
           | rmbyrro wrote:
           | Vietnam and Africa are not their geopolitical rivals.
        
             | almost_usual wrote:
             | Nor was China when the US began offshoring.
        
             | lenerdenator wrote:
             | Vietnam and China have never been any more than allies of
             | absolute convenience.
             | 
             | In fact, in one of the weirder turns of recent geopolitical
             | history, the Vietnamese would prefer to be American allies
             | over Chinese if forced to choose, and it's not even close.
             | 
             | [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/VietNam/comments/1c22j7l/vietna
             | m_st...
        
           | alephnerd wrote:
           | In VN, Chinese manufacturers tend to compete directly with SK
           | and JP FDI, so the RoI isn't too hot, and Chinese
           | manufacturers face the same hurdles American manufacturers
           | faced when entering China (eg. Forced JVs, ToTs, etc)
        
             | pogue wrote:
             | Too many acronyms!
        
               | quohort wrote:
               | IA into BS, BSDF LJL your AJS IoK. From NJBW Chinese UAU
               | in BA PFF!?
        
             | dsnr wrote:
             | VN - Vietnam
             | 
             | SK - South Korea
             | 
             | JP - Japan
             | 
             | FDI - Foreign Direct Investment
             | 
             | RoI - Return on Investment
             | 
             | JV - Joint Venture
             | 
             | ToT - Transfer of Technology ?
        
               | _nalply wrote:
               | You two are funny. Looks a bit like good cop, bad cop.
               | 
               | Informative, though!
        
               | ForOldHack wrote:
               | TMTLA - Too many three letter acronyms.
        
             | tchalla wrote:
             | WAUTA?
        
         | limit499karma wrote:
         | It wasn't just US. The hidden politburo of capitalists decided
         | and the nations followed orders.
        
       | kibwen wrote:
       | The CCP's current manufacturing policy is analogous to the modern
       | venture capitalist approach of "subsidize the product until your
       | competitors go broke, then reap the fruits of having a captive
       | market by the balls", except the fruits have gone from "the power
       | to set prices as a monopoly and extract a massive amount of
       | profit" to "massive geopolitical leverage against countries that
       | are dependent on your exports". It's a risky strategy because
       | it's trivially countered by protectionist policies, but that
       | depends on countries voluntarily refusing the free money that
       | China is doing its best to shovel into your pockets. In other
       | words, it's a bet that China's rivals cannot successfully resist
       | short-term greed despite the huge and transparent long-term
       | risks.
        
         | Johanx64 wrote:
         | > it's trivially countered by protectionist policies
         | 
         | This assumes your local manufacturing and supply chains aren't
         | completely demolished, expertise hasn't died out and been
         | replaced and you can just restart it "trivially" overnight by
         | slapping an import tariff
        
           | cjbgkagh wrote:
           | I worry that since protectionism is discretionary it's highly
           | prone to corruption which would prevent any real
           | manufacturing revival.
        
             | User23 wrote:
             | Outsourcing is also discretionary and highly prone to
             | corruption.
        
               | cjbgkagh wrote:
               | Major difference on who has the discretion
        
           | stratom wrote:
           | Yeah, that policy wasn't enacted yesterday. It's already much
           | futher along.
        
         | klyrs wrote:
         | I would not say that this is trivially corrected. The latest
         | news from Boeing is that American manufacturing has been
         | obliterated. Rebuilding the skill and _culture_ that has been
         | lost is neither easy nor guaranteed.
        
           | kortilla wrote:
           | Not a good example because Boeing didn't outsource. China
           | flies Boeing airframes made in the US and has for the last 50
           | years.
           | 
           | Boeing is an example of financiers running the company from
           | an ivory tower on the other side of the country.
        
             | klyrs wrote:
             | > Not a good example because Boeing didn't outsource.
             | 
             | No, that's precisely my point actually. Boeing is one of
             | the very few companies that maintained its local
             | manufacturing capacity. (to say that they "didn't
             | outsource" is not remotely accurate)
             | 
             | Despite _everything_ that was pointing in Boeing 's favor
             | -- culture, financials, market, reputation; it was taken
             | over by the MBAs that put McDonnell-Douglas into a nosedive
             | and now all of that is gone.
             | 
             | So now, let's assume that Boeing sees the light and wants
             | to rebuild their manufacturing chops. Who do they hire? Who
             | can they hire, who has the manufacturing expertise? When I
             | worked at Boeing 25 years ago, the old-timers were
             | invaluable. Most of those folks are dead and gone; my
             | generation _should_ be graduating into old-timer-hood in
             | the next couple of decades but Boeing hasn 't invested in
             | us. Wages have been stagnant, software is easier, tiktok is
             | more exciting, and the young generation is used to being
             | bossed around by MBAs who don't understand the work.
             | 
             | If not Boeing, the once-shining-example of American
             | manufacturing what _didn 't_ outsource, _who_ can bootstrap
             | our manufacturing renaissance?
        
               | grogenaut wrote:
               | Aah the McDonald excuse again. The favorite pivot of
               | every boing apologist and conspiracy theorist. If only
               | Mac, a completely successful defense contractor, hadn't
               | somehow engineered a completely galaxy brained backdoor
               | purchase of their largest competitor Boeing like a
               | tapewirm because they needed cash after the f112
               | cancellation they never would have lost that engineering
               | led spirit.
               | 
               | Get over it. Boeing wasn't doing great and has always had
               | struggles. They wanted to get further into defense and
               | kill off a competitor.
               | 
               | Also Wharton came for everyone in the 90s and 00s. If
               | Boeing stayed seperate from the evil Mac they still would
               | have been inmundated by best practice short term bean
               | counters from every MBA school in the country.
               | 
               | Also if you ask a machinist in Seattle or STL if Boeing
               | outsources, they sure do, to those non-union untrained
               | unqualified folks in the south. Nevermind all the
               | moisture that gets into the plane when you wheel a 747
               | from an air-conditioned warehouse to the southeast sauna.
               | Boeing has always fought with it's union so that wasn't
               | the fault of the Boogeyman either.
        
               | klyrs wrote:
               | I was there at the time, so was my mom; quite a few of my
               | friends. The McDonnell merger was the death knell. I'm
               | not saying that everything was rosy and without
               | challenge, but moving corporate to Chicago triggered
               | _massive_ changes throughout the hierarchy. And those
               | changes are now visible as rot and corruption.
        
               | aeonik wrote:
               | Cold air holds less water than dry, AC is great for
               | drying, also saunas are super dry. Heating up ACed air
               | would be ultra dry.
               | 
               | You mean that the wet rainy Seattle weather combined with
               | _jungle_ like south east make a bad moisture combo,
               | right?
        
             | gopher_space wrote:
             | Boeing's entire problem was not realizing they were
             | offshoring by moving to a location with no engineering
             | culture.
             | 
             | Getting quality out of a right-to-work state is difficult.
        
               | vinceguidry wrote:
               | Tell that to the French
        
             | stefan_ wrote:
             | Because they weren't allowed to, what with their military
             | single-source business and all that gov money keeping them
             | alive. You betcha these MBA graduates would have shipped
             | the entire farm to China if it promised a quarterly profit.
        
             | mensetmanusman wrote:
             | They did outsource to various states.
        
           | beambot wrote:
           | Pointing at Boeing for any broad business thesis is difficult
           | given recent developments (i.e. failures) -- maybe excepting
           | a shift to finance-driven culture away from engineering-
           | driven culture.
        
             | klyrs wrote:
             | Sorry, what? I think that examining Boeing, the way that it
             | has adopted modern business practices, and the way that led
             | to their catastrophic failure as an organization, is
             | necessary for us to grow beyond this as a society. Even if
             | it's difficult, it must be done.
        
         | jncfhnb wrote:
         | It's even more than that. Chinese manufacturing is sort of a
         | growth vehicle like real estate. They've pumped up
         | manufacturing capacity far more than is necessary to undercut
         | international competitors. These firms are dying in large part
         | because there's too many of them.
        
         | namaria wrote:
         | Trade policymaking is anything but trivial.
        
         | manuel_w wrote:
         | > It's a bet that China's rivals cannot successfully resist
         | short-term greed despite the huge and transparent long-term
         | risks.
         | 
         | Seems they have correctly identified the western worlds
         | weakness.
         | 
         | Isn't it the same with climate warming? In the long run it
         | would have been cheaper to prevent climate warning in it's
         | early stages. Yet, we delayed (and are delaying) necessary
         | actions as long as possible. In the end, the loss caused by
         | climate change will by far outweigh the cost if we'd have taken
         | measures early.
        
           | kiba wrote:
           | If your strategy is dependent on the enemy continuing to make
           | the same mistake year after year, then it's a bad strategy.
           | The enemy always get a vote after all.
           | 
           | Now that said, assuming your enemy is competent can also lead
           | to strategic miscalculation, such as Russia invading Ukraine
           | when everybody but the US thought they would never be insane
           | enough to do so. There's a difference between "what I would
           | do if I were X" as opposed to "what would X really do?"
           | 
           | That said, it's safer to assume that the adversary is
           | intelligent but that isn't a substitute for actually
           | understanding your enemy. Or perhaps, they don't have to be
           | your enemy.
        
       | kwhitefoot wrote:
       | > China's solar industry is also grappling with oversupply. This
       | year the prices of most components of solar modules have fallen
       | below their average production cost.
       | 
       | This should surely be regarded as an opportunity to install solar
       | panels at low cost while stocks and production capacity still
       | exist.
        
         | pstrateman wrote:
         | The panels themselves have been an insignificant parr of the
         | total cost for a while.
         | 
         | Mounts, connectors, wires, and inverters end up costing much
         | more than the panels.
        
           | kwhitefoot wrote:
           | If the profit margin is 10% then a 10% reduction in total
           | material and labour cost more than doubles your profit margin
           | if you keep your prices the same.
           | 
           | So how small a part of the total is the module cost? Even if
           | you can only save 5% you still make more than 50% extra
           | profit.
        
       | djfobbz wrote:
       | I live in China, and what I see is quite the opposite.
        
         | LoFiSamurai wrote:
         | Go on
        
         | gopher_space wrote:
         | I live in a coastal blue state in the US and would think the
         | entire country ran this well if I didn't have the internet.
        
         | saddat wrote:
         | In machinery industry it's absolutely the same situation as in
         | article
        
       | jncfhnb wrote:
       | > Hengchi, an electric-vehicle (ev) maker owned by Evergrande, a
       | failed property developer, told investors that two of its
       | subsidiaries had been forced into bankruptcy. The group
       | originally aimed to sell 1m evs a year by 2025; amid feverish
       | competition it sold just 1,389 last year.
       | 
       | When you miss sales targets by 99.9% it's got to be more than a
       | competition problem
        
         | alephnerd wrote:
         | > When you miss sales targets by 99.9% it's got to be more than
         | a competition problem
         | 
         | It's fairly common across the EV industry in China.
         | 
         | BYD is an amazing product and makes good cars. The other
         | manufacturers not so much, as is reflected in Chinese EV car
         | sales [0].
         | 
         | That's why manufacturers like SAIC (MG Motors), GAG (Wuling
         | Motors), etc have resorted to trying to export abroad because
         | they cannot beat BYD domestically, but this faces hurdles as
         | most other major markets abroad (VN, JP, SK, ID, IN, Brazil,
         | EU, MX, etc) place tariffs on autumotiive exports, forcing
         | Chinese manufacturers to either open entire factories abroad
         | with JVs or quit those markets
         | 
         | Every factory SAIC, GAG, GAC, etc opens with a foreign JV is an
         | equivalent set of jobs and IP lost in China.
         | 
         | [0] - https://autovista24.autovistagroup.com/news/big-boost-
         | chines...
        
         | mayama wrote:
         | It has to do with govt subsidy policy on making EVs that ended
         | couple of years ago. Before that, every company with cash and
         | even local govts entered EV manufacturing to avail the
         | subsidies. Even when their core competency has nothing to do
         | with EV manufacturing and even manufacturing anything. Same
         | reason, some companies filled dumping yards with bogus "sold
         | EVs", since repairing and keeping quality when being used will
         | cost them more instead of making some substandard EV and
         | generating fake sales cert.
         | 
         | Similar policy PRC used when building up solar and battery
         | industries. Subsidise a hundred companies, and few will come
         | out as winners. Reportedly with real estate issues and semi
         | trade war economy is facing headwinds and PRC is scaling down
         | subsidies.
        
       | okasaki wrote:
       | It feels like The Economist and other Western oligarch media have
       | been saying that China is going to collapse "next week" for
       | decades. Almost like they have some sort of anti-reality agenda.
        
         | jncfhnb wrote:
         | I can't find that claim in the article.
        
           | pphysch wrote:
           | If you look at the aggregate of The Economist's "reporting"
           | on China, the GPs comment is correct.
           | 
           | One could even argue they are a Chinese asset because they
           | mislead Western investors so fantastically and consistently
           | on basic economic topics, a sort of Great Filter.
        
             | gruez wrote:
             | >they mislead Western investors so fantastically and
             | consistently on basic economic topics
             | 
             | ???
        
             | jncfhnb wrote:
             | How many stacks of tinfoil hats are you rocking, exactly?
             | 
             | I'm counting at least 3
        
               | 1mcag wrote:
               | Any newspaper contains significantly more conjecture and
               | guessing that the comment you reply to. It is ironic that
               | the Economist was the magazine from which I learned
               | speculating about behind the scenes actions and personal
               | power politics.
               | 
               | Yet you do not call the Economist reporters conspiracy
               | theorists.
               | 
               | The Economist is consistently wrong about ... economic
               | predictions, which is what GP was making fun of.
        
         | mrmetanoia wrote:
         | I regularly read The Economist and it is not a flawless outlet
         | but it does not and has not attempted to perpetuate any sort of
         | collapse narrative about China. Individual opinion pieces with
         | negative outlooks based on current global market context?
         | Perhaps, but an overarching narrative of collapse just doesn't
         | exist.
        
         | Qwertious wrote:
         | The reality of China is that their GDP stats are so
         | systematically faked and so clearly don't add up that nobody
         | actually knows whether China is economically healthy, not even
         | Xi Jinping.
         | 
         | In such a scenario, China _could_ collapse at any time, and
         | _past performance is not a predictor of future results_.
        
         | scrollop wrote:
         | It's collapsing, just not "nest week"
        
       | User23 wrote:
       | Excess slack in productive capacity can be taken up not only with
       | exports, but also with domestic demand side stimulus. The Chinese
       | market is huge and can almost certainly generate demand for this
       | productive capacity with proper fiscal policy.
        
       | maxglute wrote:
       | China's manufactures finding the winners. This is the system
       | working as intended - create many producers in xyz sector via
       | subsidies, hardcore (involution) competition from 1000s in
       | different provinces innovate manufacturing to bare margins,
       | losers go out of business/ get bought up by better competitors
       | and consolidate like _intended_ outcome of other PRC industrial
       | policy. TLDR Set up competitive environment to force producers
       | speed run to a $250 model-T while everyone else could only make
       | cars for $1000. Have so much competition to force manufactures to
       | improve processes/drive down prices/affordability in short time
       | and then settle with a few large but sustainable survivors that
       | are globally competitive / can (out)compete with western
       | incumbents.
        
         | alephnerd wrote:
         | > China's manufactures finding the winners
         | 
         | But what happens to the failures, especially since they are
         | overwhelmingly subsidized by local governments?
         | 
         | Shanghai (SAIC), Jiangxi (BAIC), Guangxi (GAG), Guangdong
         | (GAC), Hebei (Dongfeng), Beijing (BAIC), and other prefectures
         | are putting tens of millions of dollars in SoEs that cannot
         | compete with BYD domestically, and face preemptive hurdles
         | entering foreign markets.
         | 
         | If these were private players, it wouldn't matter as much
         | because they could be safely shut down, but these are mixed
         | public-private, and this means a lot of misallocated capital
         | due to political considerations.
         | 
         | Ideally, all these prefectures could better utilize that
         | equivalent amount of money building domestic consumption
         | instead - like I pointed to you before, the median household
         | income in China is still around $350-400/mo in 2024, so even
         | with a loan, a cheap class-A vehicle like a Wuling Hongguang
         | Mini is still pricy.
         | 
         | Instead, these players are forced to export abroad leading to
         | unnecessary trade wars and causing other countries to either
         | limit ToTs with Chinese companies, or force Chinese companies
         | to ToT to domestic players abroad.
         | 
         | This is the same story in PV Cells, Analog Chips, Mobile
         | Phones, etc.
        
           | maxglute wrote:
           | Some local jurisdictions, especially wealthier ones will
           | continue to misallocate because they can. For sectors like
           | ev/pv/chips, they pay back in reducing imports/dependencies,
           | some level of even stupid pork barrel waste should be
           | expected/endured, i.e. US fine with 700B fossil subsidies
           | because strategic. 700-800/m couple income fine for 4000-5000
           | budget EV (new). Realistically in a few years when EV enter
           | secondary market, they'll be 2-3k used. E: (apology for
           | edits, out and about) 6m / 50% of annual household 8500-9500.
           | Vs US median household income of 75k (round up to 80k to be
           | generous) and average new vehical price of 50k. Of course
           | they're not equivalent quality goods, but the point of
           | driving costs down is to make 4k-5k tier cars possible.
           | 
           | >Instead, these players are forced to export abroad leading
           | to unnecessary trade wars
           | 
           | This is very necessary, no reason not to take share from
           | incumbent car makers, especially in RoW markets. ToT domestic
           | players fine (E: as in fine to jurisdictions that, especially
           | ASEAN / more integration), especially with current
           | sanctions/potential, PRC FDI via recirculating USDs, better
           | use now than risk lose later. E2: Let's not pretend PRC trade
           | wars are any less strategic than US trade wars (like semi).
           | PRC EVs sells -> EV piles -> energy infra -> sensors/fusion
           | -> telco.
        
             | alephnerd wrote:
             | > apology for edits, out and about
             | 
             | No worries. We all have lives.
             | 
             | > Some local jurisdictions
             | 
             | It's not some - it's a lot. And a number of these are not
             | wealthy prefectures - Guangxi, Jiangxi, Jillin, Anhui, and
             | Hebei underperform compared to the Chinese average on
             | social indicators and economic health.
             | 
             | The amount of money spent to subsidize EV cars made by GAG,
             | FAW, Dongfeng, Changan, Chery, JAC, etc that most Chinese
             | buyers just don't think about for EVs when they can buy a
             | BYD is staggering, and could be better used by the
             | prefectures I listed to better living standards or further
             | increase consumer spending via DBTs or a better welfare
             | system (which itself has been devolved to prefectures since
             | the 90s).
             | 
             | > This [export] is very necessary
             | 
             | Absolutely, and this is why every major automotive market
             | (US, EU, TR, MX, BR, SK, JP, VN, ID, IN, ZA) has already or
             | is in the process of closing their markets to direct "Made
             | in China" automotive exports (as well as other sectors like
             | renewables, consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals, etc).
             | Why should these countries lose their domestic champions at
             | the expense of Chinese players?
             | 
             | What large greenfield market can Chinese manufacturers
             | directly sell to? And you can't say "Africa" - it's not a
             | uniform market, and Chinese companies face competition from
             | (depending on the region) Turkish, Japanese, Korean,
             | Brazilian, Vietnamese, Indian, Emirati, European, South
             | African, and American competitors.
             | 
             | This is the crux of the problem - the very low median
             | household income forcing players to export.
             | 
             | Either the collective billions in subsidizes are deployed
             | to push Chinese median household incomes to at least
             | Malaysian or Mexican levels (~$10,000/yr) or even Thai
             | levels (~$6,500/yr) in order to consume this excess
             | capacity, or keep burning money subsidizing laggards while
             | alienating foreign markets and partners.
             | 
             | > Let's not pretend PRC trade wars are any less strategic
             | than US trade wars
             | 
             | At a high level it is, but the governance is atrocious.
             | Just look at the First and Second Big Fund for example.
             | 
             | And anyhow, Chinese manufacturers in these sectors then
             | face similar tariffs like EVs in the markets I listed above
             | under NatSec or Dumping grounds, which in turn drives
             | neighbors further into the US camp (eg. VN after the 2011
             | standoff and the Techo Canal, JP after Senkaku Diaoyu, TW
             | after the 2014 trade war, SK after the 2017 trade war,
             | India after the 2019-20 Galwan crisis, PH after the PoGo
             | scandal, ID and the US CSP, etc).
             | 
             | This in turn means you guys will escalate under the fear of
             | being encircled, which pushes those countries to further up
             | the ante. The same fear Chinese nationalists have about the
             | US is the fear those countries have about China.
             | 
             | Either way, this means China both loses potential economic
             | partners/markets AND exacerbates an arms race.
             | 
             | It didn't have to be this way, but the MFA's and CMC's tone
             | change since 2014 has drastically deteriorated China's
             | relations with it's neighbors.
        
               | maxglute wrote:
               | Excuse typos and lack of structure. Just long mobile
               | typing.
               | 
               | >It's not some - it's a lot.
               | 
               | It's a lot now, because the race just winding down. It
               | will be some later, if local gov can dig hard enough to
               | eat shit on land finance, they can learn to eat shit on
               | losing out on race for XYZ strategic sectors. Are we
               | going to pretend this initial overcapacity -> cull ->
               | consolidation cycle hasn't happened before? It's
               | textbook. Like bro, it's only been ~5 since capacity
               | explosion ramp, last few years was shaking out winner, it
               | will take a few more years before losers accept they've
               | lost. You're portraying as some long term sunk cost that
               | will never end, when cycle is barely even short term, and
               | local govs are historically pretty good at ditching dead
               | ideas. A few years to adjust course is about as
               | responsive as governance can be. Everyone knows model of
               | "quality growth" = lots of regional hubs up for grabs in
               | many industries PRC wants to compete with western
               | incumbents on, local gov going to ditch dead weight and
               | try to grab the next big thing. And you know what, some
               | are just geographically rat fucked and won't make it.
               | 
               | > staggering
               | 
               | Naw, it's good deal. I surmise you're thinking about CSIS
               | report that overestimates subsidies per vehicle (nvm
               | subsidies are drawing down), a few $1000 per vehicle last
               | few years now made 20k-30k quality vehicle accessible to
               | 10k buyers. Fuel savings on 11k avg annual kms -> EV is
               | ~$400. Proliferating new energy vehicles to 50% market
               | share in short term is going to pay for itself in terms
               | of fossil imports and energy secuirty.
               | 
               | > Why should
               | 
               | They wouldn't, they'll do what they do, and PRC glad to
               | FDI their way, and entrench PRC components into global
               | supply chains. Are you going to pretend all those
               | competitors are on the same cost:value level as PRC? Just
               | randomly making lists doesn't make a compelling argument.
               | 
               | > forcing players to export
               | 
               | Except what are most of the auto export? ICE vehicles,
               | mostly from western manufactures with idle PRC capacity
               | because PRC market not buying their ICE after shifting to
               | EVs. Meanwhile PRC EVs selling abroad at reasonable
               | markup, we're already seeing shifts in ASEAN against
               | SKR/JP leaders. Where's the NEV excess capacity, oh
               | right, it doesn't exist. Most % of NEV prorduced still
               | absorbed by domestic market, less % export vs other
               | automakers.
               | 
               | > consumption
               | 
               | Meanwhile I'm sure know the argument that PRC consumption
               | about OECD average with proper accounting, that western
               | wonks like to ignore to push the lack of consumption
               | narrative. All the while disposable income according to
               | states.gov.cn that you link frequently is growing at
               | health clip YoY. And for whatever reason, you seem to
               | enjoy obfuscating per capita to USD instead of PPP or
               | local currency and use local prices for comparisons. Like
               | it matters BYD dophin sells for 20k USD in malaysia but
               | 10k USD in PRC. Lot's of shit just much cheaper in PRC
               | since PRC producer. Like PRC doesnt magically overtake US
               | on protein consumption because they spend all their money
               | on protein (yes they love pork), but also because they
               | consume a lot of stuff, most stuff just happens to be
               | cheap.
               | 
               | Was First and Second Big Fund attrocious? It seemed so
               | until export controls forced PRC semi to coordinate, and
               | then they realize big funds built a shit load of pieces,
               | but just never connected them. Dumping 500b into semi
               | over ~10 years to setup conditions to move away from
               | 300-400B PER year semi impmorts is fair deal, especially
               | considering how PRC indigenous semi doing last post
               | sanction compared to how CHIPs doing.
               | 
               | > or keep burning money subsidizing laggards while
               | alienating foreign markets and partners.
               | 
               | Again is it burning? Again subsidies phasing out, and
               | actually effective in driving down durable unit cost. Is
               | it alientating foreign markets or partners? Seems like
               | tike most are fine with following PRC JV path, taking PRC
               | FDI, and so far seems like PRC is fine with that
               | arrangment too. Except you know, US whose allergic to
               | anything PRC. Are we also ignoring PRC exports still
               | hitting/maintaining near record levels, including with
               | India. Is it any worse than US spending 5%+ GDP than
               | average healthcare spending for less life span, i.e.
               | ~1.4T annually. Or the aforementioned 700b on fossil
               | subsidies. Is PRC spending a 200B on NEV subsidies that
               | will save trillions in keeping money into PRC compnaies
               | and energy import costs in perpituity... burning money?
               | 
               | In similar lens, was First and Second Big Fund
               | attrocious? It seemed so until export controls forced PRC
               | semi to coordinate, and then they realize big funds built
               | a shit load of pieces, but just never connected them.
               | Dumping 500b into semi over ~10 years to setup conditions
               | to move away from 300-400B PER year semi impmorts is fair
               | deal, especially considering how PRC indigenous semi
               | doing last post sanction compared to how CHIPs doing.
               | 
               | > neighbours
               | 
               | And does it matter if SKR/JP/TW/PH goes into US camp? The
               | point is to bleed the first 3 that are high end export
               | competitors. US security partner gotta US security hedge
               | regardless. That's less an economic battle more a
               | military force balance, one which PRC is increasing gap
               | in theatre. Whose To Lam's first visitor? To PRC. I think
               | blob wank thinks PRC is really interested in playing nice
               | with US partners in region, when PRC see knos no amount
               | of playing nice is going to get US security architecture
               | out of east Asia short of force. In the meantime
               | (peacetime) focus on eroding them as economic
               | competitors. And we can all pretend PRC is making a
               | folley not using carrots when the only real solution, is
               | a much bigger stick.
               | 
               | It was always going to be this way, PRC was always going
               | to move up value chain to compete with tier1
               | economies/exporters. PRC was always going to move up
               | value chain, it was always going to take a swipe at
               | leading incumbants, and at PRC scale, it's was always
               | going to aim for her disproportionate share of pie. In a
               | world where PRC is adding more skilled workforce than
               | rest of the world combined + going for 11 on involution
               | driven industrial output is also world where PRC is
               | poised to win the arms race. She simply has too much
               | people not to do all these things and still have 100ms
               | farmers/informal economy. There was never going to be
               | anything but (arguably zero sum) fight for many pies.
               | 
               | TLDR We've interrogated this before, I don't find you
               | rehashing latest blob narratives on PRC behaviour
               | compelling. I don't find their conclusions/analysis
               | particularly sincere/unmotivated. Trade numbers seems to
               | show PRC is building lots of economic partners AND
               | winning the arms race. Meanwhile US security architecture
               | straying further and further from what was deemed
               | neccessary (AGILE, NGAD, lol missiles in vietname) while
               | acquisitions/prepositions in theatre by US+co is being
               | out paced by magnitudes by PRC. I sit any wonder defense
               | blob last couple month started referencing PRC as no
               | longer "pacing power" but "past pacing". That's what
               | happens one PRC shipyard builds more than entire US
               | shipbuilding combined.
               | 
               | > You guys
               | 
               | Again, I'm Canadian, like you. I'm just not (a presumably
               | American related/adjacent) recovering policy wonk. Anyway
               | feel free to have last word. You're still a very
               | intelligent posters with IMO very obvious biases, as am
               | I.
        
         | aquamar2 wrote:
         | Still doesn't work.
         | 
         | 1.) Internal consumer demand for China has collapsed, due to
         | real estate debt overhang, local government debt overhang,
         | increasing job loss, and incoming and increasing college
         | graduates. It's estimated that 80% of this year's current
         | graduates are jobless.
         | 
         | 2.) External demand for China has been decreasing, 3.5T total
         | export in 2022, only 3.3T in 2023. probably below 3T this year.
         | Due to geopolitical factors such as China allying with Russia,
         | and increasing tariffs from every other country due to
         | overproduction/overexport from China.
         | 
         | 3.) EV (at 36B in 2023) is only 1% of value of all Chinese
         | export (3.7T). Not going to rescue the Chinese economy at all.
         | On top of that, only BYD is capable/making some profit, while
         | every other Chinese EV is going to shut down in the next 5
         | years.
        
           | maxglute wrote:
           | Work what? I think Ctrl+F China + collapse arguments still
           | doesn't work.
           | 
           | 1) Consumption is "sluggish", i.e. it's small positive growth
           | instead of large precovid positive growth. It's not negative
           | decline let alone collapse. Get off the FLG. Employment rate
           | steady, including new grads at 20% accounting for those in
           | school and not looking for work (i.e. the Chinese tertiary
           | way), 40%-50% for graduate cohorts who takes time job hunting
           | / not ready to settle. Which they will, given broad
           | unemployments is steady, i.e. new grads get job after 1+ year
           | and roll into genpop employment stats. There's 1% drop in new
           | salaries in some industries, people are staying in jobs
           | longer. "New productive" industry jobs, i.e. the high value
           | ones set to drive PRC economy including energy, semi etc
           | experience continuous growth. In aggregate positive, not
           | fantastic, but also opposite of collapse.
           | 
           | 2) Exports stabilizing after record covid highs, still only
           | ~20% of gdp, i.e. PRC hasn't been (barely) export dependant
           | for 10+ years at high of ~35%. If you follow brad setser,
           | he'll note PRC exports probably being massively/deliberately
           | hidden/under reported because two way data suggest much
           | higher. BTW export dependant countries regularly over 50-100%
           | export to gdp. Entire overproduction/overexport narrative is
           | retarded considering how little PRC exports as share of GDP.
           | 
           | 3) Who said EV was suppose to rescue PRC economy? PRC too big
           | for 1 sector/industry to make difference. Collection of New
           | productive industry jobs doing their part, sure. But
           | generally when you remove RE drama, which they deliberately
           | crippled, you get current modest 5% growth instead of
           | previous 7-8%. Settling to modest growth is expected sooner
           | or later. Modest growth (~5%) is enough to increase GDP PPP
           | gap vs US. Most of projections on PRC passing US GDP assumes
           | eventual modest growth + FX movements i.e strength RMB. Which
           | they strategically don't want to because right now it's all
           | about pricing out incumbant competitors in new export
           | categories. Like CCP can get easy propaganda win by moving
           | RMB band 5-10% to entier per capita $14000 USD high income
           | range, but they don't because modest growth works fine.
        
             | aquamar2 wrote:
             | It's a bit funny that you think I'm copy pasting, when all
             | your China (sorry, PRC, I guess you don't want dang to come
             | find you) posts reads like llm rambling garbage with no
             | references to back it up.
        
       | olalonde wrote:
       | The title of the article is a bit misleading. Manufacturers are
       | going broke because there's too many of them, which is arguably a
       | nice problem to have.
        
         | from-nibly wrote:
         | Not when your money is funding them even if you don't want it
         | to.
        
       | rkwz wrote:
       | Genuine question, if they have so much excess capacity and low
       | domestic demand, wouldn't it be easier to just export to other
       | countries? Or are there barriers put in place in the world stage
       | that limits this?
        
         | marcosdumay wrote:
         | You are suggesting that China "just" exports an order of
         | magnitude more.
         | 
         | That's not a simple "just" you have there. Who is buying all
         | those goods?
        
         | Axsuul wrote:
         | Tariffs[0]
         | 
         | 0. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy99z53qypko#
        
         | chiph wrote:
         | A common bit of advice is to build one less of your widgets
         | than what your customers will buy. You then meet demand
         | (nearly!) and your price gets supported.
         | 
         | Chinese manufacturers on the other hand, seem to be following
         | the "build it and they will buy" philosophy. When you do this,
         | prices (and profits) head towards zero.
         | 
         | This is the exact opposite of the Toyota Way, where customer
         | demand serves as a signal (Kanban) to produce a widget and
         | deliver it when needed.
        
         | almatabata wrote:
         | Let us assume they start dumping all their excess
         | internationally. Do you think other countries will just allow
         | china to flood the international market and drive other
         | countries respective auto makers out of business? Other
         | countries will raise tariffs accordingly until they reach an
         | equilibrium that they feel comfortable with.
        
           | fspeech wrote:
           | Not everyone makes cars. Shrinking the global market shares
           | of the ones that do will make the competitors' economy of
           | scale worse as they withdraw from the ROW to hide behind the
           | trade barriers.
        
       | highfrequency wrote:
       | These are some staggering numbers: 52 _thousand_ Chinese EV
       | companies shut down last year.
       | 
       | Xi Jinping (successfully) stimulated EV and semiconductor
       | manufacturing through massive government investment and loans.
       | The problem is that so many companies were funded that they are
       | now viciously driving each other out of business through
       | oversupply.
       | 
       | Because the supply chain networks are so dense, each bankruptcy
       | easily cascades because the company then defaults on contracts
       | with vendors and customers.
       | 
       | None of this, of course, is good news for US competitors like
       | Tesla. With such a large field of vicious competition, it's
       | almost assured that the small set of businesses that succeed will
       | be able to outcompete globally with extremely low cost structure.
       | We see this happening with BYD.
        
         | alephnerd wrote:
         | > With such a large field of vicious competition
         | 
         | Other than BYD (which has a strong product market fit and a
         | very strong technical foundation in both battery tech and
         | automotive development), where can the competition export?
         | 
         | Every major automotive market has preemptively or actively
         | placed tariffs on Chinese automotive exports straight from
         | China.
         | 
         | SAIC, GAG, GAC, BAIC, BYD, etc will all have to either ToT IP,
         | open domestic factories, or create JVs in order to enter most
         | markets.
         | 
         | BYD completely owns the Chinese EV market in absolute numbers -
         | and the competitors had to preemptively begin exporting abroad,
         | which sparked trade wars and worries of dumping, which made it
         | harder for BYD and other players to export "Made in China" cars
        
           | reisse wrote:
           | > where can the competition export?
           | 
           | You see, there is a 1.5m-2m new car market right next to
           | China, completely abandoned by western players. And another
           | 500k-1m market in Central Asia, where General Motors
           | neocolonialist monopoly is waiting for disruption.
           | 
           | Of course it's not US or EU-sized market, but realistically,
           | in the best case scenario I'd expect China to have at most
           | 20% of US or EU. Here, they can take it all.
        
             | alephnerd wrote:
             | > You see, there is a 1.5m-2m new car market right next to
             | China, completely abandoned by western players
             | 
             | Which one? If you mean Russia (which by the way is only
             | 600-700k), then those Chinese players face secondary
             | sanctions in most markets which settle trade in USD, along
             | with a lot of politically connected domestic players.
             | 
             | If you mean India, most Chinese players have been chased
             | out or forced to transfer technology and majority ownership
             | to Indian companies (eg. SAIC MG Motors India now being
             | majority owned by JSW Group). Also, the dominant foreign
             | players are Japanese and Korean with massive Indian
             | government backing.
             | 
             | If you mean VN, ID, MY, or PH, then it's South Korean and
             | Japanese JVs that have a dominant position along with
             | govenenent backing.
             | 
             | > another 500k-1m market in Central Asia
             | 
             | Which is dominated by a mix of American (GM) and South
             | Korean (Hyundai) JVs with UzAutos, Russian automotive
             | players, and Japanese JVs with Pakistani+Indian players
             | (eg. Toyota x Pakistani Army)
        
               | reisse wrote:
               | > If you mean Russia
               | 
               | Yes.
               | 
               | > (which by the way is only 600-700k)
               | 
               | 700k was the official figure for 2022, which, besides the
               | obvious reasons to be an outlier, is also skewed by the
               | fact 300k more cars were imported as "used" to workaround
               | stopping of the official deliveries. It was more than 1m
               | new cars sold in 2023, now it's 700k just for the Jan-Jun
               | 2024.
               | 
               | > then those Chinese players face secondary sanctions in
               | most markets which settle trade in USD
               | 
               | Yet the reality shows they don't really care much. Why
               | should they, though? The big ones have the leverage of
               | controlling the access to the Chinese domestic market,
               | which is too important for the Western manufacturers. And
               | the small ones are already effectively excluded (by the
               | tariffs and such) from the markets that can implement
               | secondary sanctions.
               | 
               | > Which is dominated by a mix of American (GM) and South
               | Korean (Hyundai) JVs with UzAutos
               | 
               | There is no economic reason why GM dominates that market.
               | GM produces too little cars, of a questionable design age
               | and quality. The day someone is able to talk local
               | government into a deal with favorable tariff conditions
               | (not circa 100% import tax that exists now), GM business
               | in Central Asia is dead.
        
       | yorwba wrote:
       | Their graph off loss-making industrial enterprises looks slightly
       | more dramatic than the underlying monthly data.
       | 
       | If you check the National Bureau of Statistics' data on Yu Sun Qi
       | Ye  (Yue Du Shu Ju  > Zhi Biao  > Gong Ye  > Gong Ye Qi Ye Zhu
       | Yao Jing Ji Zhi Biao ), https://data.stats.gov.cn you see that
       | there is a yearly cycle where the number jumps in February: from
       | 67,570 in 2021-12 to 132,371 in 2022-02 (January is skipped),
       | from 91,222 in 2022-12 to 161,892 in 2023-2, and from 103,994 in
       | 2023-12 to 167,895 in 2025-02. By plotting the last available
       | month for every year, 2024 ends up sticking out a bit more than
       | it will once the end-of-year data is out.
       | 
       | Nonetheless, the overall trend is undeniable.
        
       | kkfx wrote:
       | I fail to see a specific news, the article cite a single example
       | of a failed BEV OEM, there are many, it's perfectly normal that
       | some are not good enough to survive. In our golden age of
       | automotive we have had countless automakers, most have failed
       | some have skyrocketed...
       | 
       | Aside overcapacity should be synonymous of low prices, I still
       | wait to see here in EU prices like in the BRICS area for products
       | imported from China. An example a BYD Atto 3 here cost a bit less
       | than 40kEUR while in Thailand cost a bit less than 10kEUR
       | https://asia.nikkei.com/content/1f9ed40b4b44745e1a39fafaf94b...
       | such price delta have no justification in mere free market
       | economical terms, have only political justifications NONE OF THEM
       | acceptable by the civil society. I still wait to see LFP
       | batteries prices drops like in China to have a well-sized home
       | battery at a price cheap enough to make buying it convenient,
       | let's say 50kWh for 5kEUR. Let's say 15kW p.v. inverter for
       | 1.5kEUR etc.
       | 
       | If China manufacturers goes broke we customers do the same in EU,
       | and I suspect in USA to, simply to enrich some local cleptocrats.
        
       | 486sx33 wrote:
       | It's pretty simple, Chinese companies need to lower Chinese
       | wages, reduce costs, reduce profit expectations, provide lower
       | cost shipping to ports, guarantee the quality of their product
       | once it arrives in North America not pay when it leaves the
       | factory.
       | 
       | We want $1 products again at dollar tree (not $1.25 tree), and
       | better quality for less money.
       | 
       | Otherwise we will just make the stuff in the USA ourselves. One
       | day we will get smart and export more TO China because no one in
       | China trusts the quality of anything made in China
        
         | missedthecue wrote:
         | Personally, I have been coming more around to Chinese
         | manufactured goods. It used to be low-end crap 30 years ago,
         | but they are market leaders in many sectors today and probably
         | even more tomorrow. I recently drove a Chinese (ICE) SUV for
         | the first time and was blown away by the fit, finish, and
         | price.
        
           | mensetmanusman wrote:
           | I think they are referencing various food scandals that
           | rocked trust of Chinese food production in china (esp. for
           | babies).
        
             | aquamar2 wrote:
             | lots of other scandals, not just food
             | 
             | 1.) recent 2024 huge scandal regarding oil container trucks
             | swapping out cooking oil with cancerous industry oil
             | without cleaning the tank. the trucks ended up covering up
             | their tank with tarp so people can't see what kind of oil
             | these trucks are carrying.
             | 
             | 2.) videos of Chinese EVs just simultaneously combusting in
             | the streets while driven or parked
             | 
             | 3.) toxic chemicals found on Temu/Shien clothes, found by
             | South Korea and US
        
               | sandspar wrote:
               | Great, now do scandals in the US. The Chinese internet
               | was very interested in the Ohio train derailment, for
               | example.
        
               | leoh wrote:
               | Links! Sounds interesting
        
         | AtlasBarfed wrote:
         | The inherent assumption here is "China is a functioning
         | country".
         | 
         | Chairman Xi is a dear leader now. Autocratic controls are
         | coming down with force, and the free market reforms are being
         | rescinded. This is not a competent autocracy, Xi has purged any
         | competence from the central government.
         | 
         | China is also facing a massive financial house of cards and a
         | real estate disaster.
         | 
         | China long term is facing an unprecedented demographic collapse
         | in terms of raw numbers of people. Both Russia, who also face a
         | massive demographic collapse, and China are masking their
         | population losses and the sharp declines in population
         | replacement.
         | 
         | The UN projects 100 million people less by 2050, but I
         | personally think that demographic attrition will actually be in
         | the 200 million range. I also think that China will suffer a
         | massive country-wide food supply disruption either due to
         | Taiwan aggression, economic depression, collective
         | international isolation, or political collapse that will lead
         | to a huge famine in that time span. Finally, the population
         | will age considerably, so even if the "loss" in absolute terms
         | is only 100-150 million people, the collective productivity
         | loss will be shockingly high.
        
           | sandspar wrote:
           | Judging from your post alone, you seem to have started with a
           | conclusion ("China will collapse") and sought out evidence
           | that will support your prejudgment. Also, the statistics you
           | cite are less sophisticated than the statistics you'd find on
           | a rag like CNN, so it's not even apparent whether you've done
           | any serious research.
        
       | naveen99 wrote:
       | If the capacity was for exports of ev's, solar panels, batteries
       | to U.S. and Europe, the 100% tariffs are going to bring some
       | pain. somehow iPhones, leather bags are not getting tariffs.
        
         | mensetmanusman wrote:
         | iPhone tariffs would hurt the us and china both too much.
         | 
         | Ev tariffs are meh for china because they don't sell here much
         | anyway.
        
           | naveen99 wrote:
           | Not with 100% tariffs they won't
        
       | jeffbee wrote:
       | China: tons of stuff, no profits.
       | 
       | America: lots of profit, no product.
       | 
       | Maybe we can borrow from each other? I can think of a bunch of
       | sclerotic industries in America that need to have their margins
       | driven to zero.
        
       | xrd wrote:
       | Does anyone know if this means hot deals on extra EV inventory?
       | 
       | I tried to buy an electric golf cart which looked like a Hummer
       | on Alibaba, but importing it (getting it past customs) was
       | challenging. They had me at MP3 player!
       | 
       | If I could buy an EV for $3k, it would be worth the hassle with
       | charging infrastructure and hiding an illegal vehicle from the
       | coppers. </joke>
        
       | seatac76 wrote:
       | A lot of these were unsustainable to begin with, the number
       | inflates the viability. The key players are expanding, and
       | increasingly building out manufacturing in cheaper countries like
       | Mexico, Vietnam, Thailand so they will become much more dominant.
        
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