China's Economic Boom Is Shaking Western Views Of The Country

Shanghai skyline

Spengler, Asia Times: Western contempt for China turns to panic

Economic boom continues with electronics industry domination and infrastructure growth through trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.

Not since the British garrison at Singapore surrendered to Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita in 1942 has Western opinion of an Asian power changed so fast. When China’s 2015 stock market bubble popped, prevailing Western opinion held that China’s economic boom would flame out in a debt crisis comparable to America’s subprime disaster of 2008 or the near collapse of Europe’s southern tier in 2013.

Now that China’s tradeable stock market has risen by 43% during 2017 in US dollar terms (with the MSCI-based ETF as a benchmark), Western opinion is melting up. Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, is raising money for a China investment vehicle. Bank of America now predicts Asian stocks will double in the present bull run. “Hedge Funds Used to Love Shorting China. Now, Not So Much,” declared a Bloomberg headline Sept. 12.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: China is still vulnerable to tariffs being imposed on international trade for their economic growth. This is why the North Korean crisis .... and President Trump's threat to use tariffs to curtail Chinese trade as a leverage for Chinese cooperation .... has raised alarm bells in Beijing and in Wall Street. But as Spengler in the above analysis points out .... Trump adviser Steve Bannon was the last person (not including President Trump) who was focused on this issue, and it appears that his departure has taken this issue off the table. I recall reading a few weeks ago that President Trump was demanding from his economic advisers a list of tariffs that he could impose on Chinese goods. Since then .... there has been no news at all on this subject, and definitely no serious tariffs or economic measures against China from the White House to speak of. As an outside observer .... if I was a Chinese official and/or an American business executive with deep ties to China .... I should take comfort that the status-quo will be maintained, and China's growth fueled by U.S. investment and an imbalanced trade deficit will continue.