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melling

China is either the world’s 1st or 2nd largest economy, depending on how you measure it:

https://www.thebalance.com/world-s-largest-economy-3306044

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mapped-worlds-largest-expor...

I think people are slow to realize their new position in the world.

When US and Europe shipped all that manufacturing to China, it created this problem.

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Most of China’s exports are low value manufactured goods which can be made elsewhere. There’s a lot more countries in the world than there are Chinas, even if your worldview counts both of them.

That used to be the case; now the new Silicon Valley for producing anything is in Shenzhen with crazy innovation (kinda like what Japan used to be in the 80s). You can set up your own goods production there in minutes and in all kinds of quality as your budget allows. A regular Chinese now matches a regular American in quality of life as measured by typical economical metrics (adjusted for purchase parity, not in nominal value). Many US/EU companies reduced to selling stuff one can buy on Alibaba for 1/10th, just rebranded to appear US/EU-made. There are some areas Chinese can't do yet, like advanced metallurgy, which was generating quite a bit of business for US/EU, but that disadvantage is disappearing rapidly as they continue throwing money on it and invest into research.

I was with you until

"A regular Chinese now matches a regular American in quality of life as measured by typical economical metrics (adjusted for purchase parity, not in nominal value)."

A regular Chinese in Shenzhen, maybe. I'm not sure about someone from the part of China that isn't on the coast or Beijing.

There are 300M+ urban Chinese that now have a standard of living comparable those of their Western counterparts. There are 800M+ Chinese people living in relative poverty in rural areas that bring the average and median quality of life metrics down.

So, 1/3rd instead of 1/2th.

> A regular Chinese now matches a regular American in quality of life as measured by typical economical metrics (adjusted for purchase parity, not in nominal value).

No. China’s per capita GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity is still under US$17K. Even with perfectly flat income distribution that would be around half of US median personal income. Realistically, the gap is much more than 2×.

We can manufacture elsewhere, and many companies already are. China needs us a hell of a lot more than we need China.

> China is either the world’s 1st or 2nd largest economy, depending on how you measure it

So what? Its exports account for only ~13%. According to the same data, Belgium is 2.4%. I've never even heard of anything "Made in Belgium".

Beer

Excellent chocolates and cheese as well. Great pommes frites, but those are harder to export.

Don't forget waffles!

And not just any beer, but those amazing abbey ales.

Arms[1].

[1] https://www.fnherstal.com/

Ummm....Barco for one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barco_(manufacturer)

Diamonds

Frozen vegetables

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