How China fooled the World - BBC Documentary

[Rashna]

An interesting take on how China battled the West's economic recession in the post lehman bros. era by going ballistic with infrastructure building all financed through loans and shadow credit. China's debt burden today stands at double its GDP and this documentary is an eye opener for those who believe that shiny buildings and metro rails are a sign of economic boom. This documentary was made in 2014 and we are already beginning to see the effects on the Chinese economy.

China is now the second largest economy in the world and for the last 30 years China's economy has been growing at an astonishing rate. While Britain has been in the grip of the worst recession in a generation, China's economic miracle has wowed the world.

It is a story of spending and investment on a scale never seen before in human history -- 30 new airports, 26,000 miles of motorways and a new skyscraper every five days have been built in China in the last five years. But, in a situation eerily reminiscent of what has happened in the west, the vast majority of it has been built on credit.

This has now left the Chinese economy with huge debts and questions over whether much of the money can ever be paid back. Interviewing key players including the former American treasury secretary Henry Paulson, Lord Adair Turner, former chairman of the FSA, and Charlene Chu, a leading Chinese banking analyst, Robert Peston reveals how China's extraordinary spending has left the country with levels of debt that many believe can only end in an economic crash with untold consequences for us all.


[video=dailymotion;x1cpoyc]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1cpoyc_bbc-this-world-2014-how-china-fooled-the-world-720p-hdtv-x264-aac-mvgroup-org_tech[/video]

 

[Zeratul]

How China fooled the World ？？？ Really shameless！！！

The west media fooled the people ,because they only report the negative of China to people.

if you focus on China media, you feel no fooled.

 

[sorcerer]

^^
Chinese media is propaganda by CCP..

Is there something called FREE MEDIA in China?

 

[anupamsurey]

^^
Chinese media is propaganda by CCP..

Is there something called FREE MEDIA in China?

you pressed the bed sores of chinese Good sir,
its not free media, it is more like spoon fed media the CCP spoon feeds the Media, and the media spoon feeds the public. finally you are left with babies who cant feed themselves.

 

[Rowdy]

Well I can say that china has traded financial security for growth like Higher HDI, low poverty etc.
How it will pan out is still to be seen.

 

[Compersion]

PRC needs to reduce interest rates is the moral of the story when there is large debt ... Not how many empty buildings and unprofitable entity there are in PRC (which are far too many). the question is how would hong kong , taiwan and macau react (since it is not fully clear if 0% interest rates really works wonders) but the stock market and property markets might go crazy because PRC money might flood such areas since it is easy and ironic it might sound that might not be a good thing.

Japan probably has a lot more debt and per person but i suppose they have transparency and bankruptcy procedures and a currency that adopts and i would be surprise if some of the above names really made any critical comments against PRC. I would prefer a documentary on President Xi and his performance and what happens after him and analysis of his red book that is available everywhere ... economic hardships for a country is not practical anymore and one can see from QE and also what is happening with Greece (but the fat lady has not sung yet and are we preparing the scene for a lesson in financial reasonableness for everyone in the world). sometimes i really have to give credit to our RBI (but we have learned our lessons in the past).

 

[Ray]

China is a fraud.

The debts will consume it.

 

[Sakal Gharelu Ustad]

China grew well in the last decade and acted as an anchor for the world economy.

May be they fuelled the bubble a bit too much and would see a slowdown. But that does not mean that all gains from the past will wash away if China slows down.

 

[Compersion]

The Kings of the Desert
An American banker, a Saudi billionaire, and a financial collapse that stunned the Middle East.

A Billion-Dollar Mirage - The New Yorker

PRC is much bigger in magnitude and a correction might also be more severe even if it is only 20 - 30 %. one of the reasons PRC has gone up is because of "large" numbers. the same will apply other way. one cannot hide behind large numbers to show inefficiency especially without transparency. and PRC is preparing itself for such a correction and its creature form for a long time now (the number of times one reads how Hu Jintao and Xi Jingping have formed study groups on Soviet Union collapse is encyclopedic) . If you go up 100% and go down 30% that ought to not be a problem and also it takes out the weak and makes the system stronger. Thats the principle and reasonableness and USA has shown it has gone through many recessions to be where they are. In 19th century USA has many recessions and even this century USA has had many. But the principle and reasonableness is not singular and it can impact much larger and more important areas. CCP survival is more important to PRC survival ... the CCP wants to survive. At this moment i dont think otherwise and the CCP will survive. Even Germany survived after world war 1.

 

[Hari Sud]

For the last thirty years Western Media with BBC and the likes of Economist magazine including have been faithfully reporting Chinese propaganda. Now reality is striking hard. Chinese went overconfident and thought themselves invincible.

Wait, let the West cut back on imports from China, there will be more bloodshed in Chinese export oriented economy. Time is coming for that.

 

[Ray]

The West is fed on the concept of 'waste economy'.

They are addicted to the cheap and shoddy stuff of China, which they throw away once used since it does not make any pinch to their pocket.

Will the West, based on the concept of 'waste' really cut down imports?

But then, the flip side is that the Chinese labour is no longer happy with cut rate pay and perks. Therefore, China will have to give a higher salary unless they want a rebellion of sorts. Costs will go up. And the West may start feeling the pinch.

China will also have to shell out more for the rundown West of their country since the economic and social disparity is getting too stark from the rich East and the poor North and West.

Chinese Communist cannot afford to have social unrest.

While that is happening in China, the West then will go looking for cheaper markets that are coming up in the Pacific rim and even India.

The Chinese balloon will burst?

 

[Khagesh]

The West is fed on the concept of 'waste economy'.

They are addicted to the cheap and shoddy stuff of China, which they throw away once used since it does not make any pinch to their pocket.

Will the West, based on the concept of 'waste' really cut down imports?

But then, the flip side is that the Chinese labour is no longer happy with cut rate pay and perks. Therefore, China will have to give a higher salary unless they want a rebellion of sorts. Costs will go up. And the West may start feeling the pinch.

China will also have to shell out more for the rundown West of their country since the economic and social disparity is getting too stark from the rich East and the poor North and West.

Chinese Communist cannot afford to have social unrest.

While that is happening in China, the West then will go looking for cheaper markets that are coming up in the Pacific rim and even India.

The Chinese balloon will burst?

West is indeed hooked onto waste and they are today importing waste (consumer goods packaged nicely) from Mexico and doing that increasingly.

Instead you will see Chinese brands here in India now. Geeonee Haier whatever. Its all there in India and also in other parts of the world too. What happens to other parts of world is not my business. But it is we who are today getting infected by the Western bug of ceaseless consumption and karza le kar darza badhana.

Chinese offcourse have their own problems but I don't think they will go down without hurting everybody else.

But yes having seen some of the Gurgaon style 'growth' based on Vadara-pana in India myself I shudder to think what these chinese must have done.