America First? USA spends $60 billion to counter China's Belt & Road

[moweike]

That's because China built everything in the last decade. Majority of American Infrastructure was built pre world war 2.As a Country China is well behind US , its at a stage where US was in 50's .

please tell me,Why does the US invest in infrastructure in Africa? If it's like you say：“As a Country China is well behind US , its at a stage where US was in 50's” ,Go tell the US, it doesn't need to be afraid.

 

[Feng Leng]

China is already very wealthy. The per capital real GDP is about half of USA already. An average young Chinese person getting a job in a city will make about $15,000 per year and the real wages will be $30,000 per year.

 

[UserUnknown2025]

US is ahead in 99 % of the Social Indicators by a margin. If you want I can post each and every one of those indexes for you but it will only make you look bad. Again I repeat making shiny new airports is not a sign of development. China as a whole is a claustrophobic society with little freedom in any part of life. Everything is restricted by the government.

China's average healthy life span just eclipsed that of the US. If China is so unfree and has zero innovative ability, then how do you explain the fact that patents of Chinese origin was far greater in number that those of any other country. How do you explain the fact that China possesses many innovative companies like Alibaba, Sensetime, and Huawei? Before you start blaming all of this on the alleged Chinese theft of intellectual property, consider that there are many many models, products and practices China has adopted which the US has not. Don't tell me China invented a time machine to steal ideas from the future.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michae.../china-is-innovating-faster-than-you-imagine/
https://www.canadianbusiness.com/te...valley-china-is-the-worlds-innovation-engine/

Chinese innovation has become so good that even western start ups are starting to copy China.
Believe whatever you want, I'm just here to show you something you never hear about.

I'm just sad looking at people who think they know everything get blinded by their hubris.

I wonder why all those thousands of Chinese are running away from China and trying to settle in US

I'm also wondering why they are coming back to China in droves

We never said China is ahead, China is like US in the 1950's, but still, it's changing.
https://qz.com/1342525/chinese-students-increasingly-return-home-after-studying-abroad/

Shhhh don't hit them too hard with the truth. The harsher the reality is, the more likely they are going to delude themselves even further. Need to be more gentle with them.

I hope you and your family get approved for immigration to the USA.
I mean the best for you.

Ive been living the US for about 6 years and I can tell you it's not as good as you portray it to be. In fact, I think China is better in some aspects.

 

[SBUS-CXK]

First of all get your country free from all the oppression by the government. Can't even criticise the government but talking about being in the same league as US. China is in the same boat as Iran , Eritrea when it comes to personal freedom , Freedom of expression.



My University was filled with Chinese Students . They hated the Pollution , heavy Traffic , Noise and the claustrophobic atmosphere and felt they had a higher quality of life there.

China is not a closed country. Many Pakistan friends are in China. They use Chinese video APP to record their lives.
We have a pleasant exchange. and they speak very fluent chinese. So, welcome you to China.

 

[war&peace]

But you said 50's... why backtrack it so quickly?

He is a liar. China is fairing really good. No country has been able to bring out such large population from below poverty line to now into mid to lower high income group. China has become a major trading hub for the world and it is leading in many technologies like Huwalong nuclear reactors, HSR, and quantum communication. Also China has built some of the largest structures like 3 gorges dams and a many of the top 20 worlds longest bridges.

 

[PakSword]

He is a liar. China is fairing really good. No country has been able to bring out such large population from below poverty line to now into mid to lower high income group. China has become a major trading hub for the world and it is leading in many technologies like Huwalong nuclear reactors, HSR, and quantum communication. Also China has built some of the largest structures like 3 gorges dams and a many of the top 20 worlds longest bridges.

I agree.

The progress of China can't be compared with any country on this planet so far. Good thing about China is that, it hasn't waged a war on any territory (and bombed it to rubble) like US does all the time in search of resources.. @haidian

China is not a closed country. Many Pakistan friends are in China. They use Chinese video APP to record their lives.
We have a pleasant exchange. and they speak very fluent chinese. So, welcome you to China.

We even don't know if someone sitting in US is even a Pakistani.. or he is not working in the interests of US to please the country where he lives..

 

[war&peace]

I wonder why all those thousands of Chinese are running away from China and trying to settle in US

Mate it is a personal choice and does not mean they leave China because they hate it. For example I have a good life in Sweden but if I get the chance to live in Madina permanently, I will definitely move there and spend my life there.. Also many Chinese went to USA in 70's and 80's when it was not so developed but now it has reduced rather a lot of Chinese-Americans are emigrating back to China to benefit from the economic boon.

 

[PakSword]

Mate it is a personal choice and does not mean they leave China because they hate it. For example I have a good life in Sweden but if I get the chance to live in Madina permanently, I will definitely move there and spend my life there.. Also many Chinese went to USA in 70's and 80's when it was not so developed but now it has reduced rather a lot of Chinese-Americans are emigrating back to China to benefit from the economic boon.

I have seen more Chinese coming back after completing their studies.. who wants to live in a foreign country when he has plenty of opportunities available back home?

 

[Mista]

In Alot of Progressive values China is behind US by 100 years. Anybody can make shiny new airports . India has shiny new airports does that make it better it than Scandinavian countries?



Talk about Mainland China. US has a GDP per capita of $60000, While is at 9-10K.

The US is one of the wealthiest country if we go by GDP per capita, but the US is among the bottom in many social indicators when compared to other developed countries. Crime, life expectancy, healthcare, drugs, PISA, incarceration rate etc.

And it's not just marginally worse, it has the largest deviation.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/5-reasons-why-we-need-to-reduce-global-inequality/

On the other hand in Japan, a country which economy is often dismissed as stagnating, their people have far better social indicators. Safety, cleanliness, organized, social etiquette, life expectancy etc.

Better economic growth doesn't necessarily translate to better societal progress after GDP per capita reaches 30K. And here we have Trump cutting taxes for the rich which is going to lead to wider global inequality...

 

[Khan_21]

The US is one of the wealthiest country if we go by GDP per capita, but the US is among the bottom in many social indicators when compared to other developed countries. Crime, life expectancy, healthcare, drugs, PISA, incarceration rate etc.

And it's not just marginally worse, it has the largest deviation.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/09/5-reasons-why-we-need-to-reduce-global-inequality/

On the other hand in Japan, a country which economy is often dismissed as stagnating, their people have far better social indicators. Safety, cleanliness, organized, social etiquette, life expectancy etc.

Better economic growth doesn't necessarily translate to better societal progress after GDP per capita reaches 30K. And here we have Trump cutting taxes for the rich which is going to lead to wider global inequality...

Japan is far behind US on HDI.

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

USA tops in ranking like average Income , wealth and Have the biggest houses in all OECD countries. Is ranked 8th in terms of quality of life above countries like Netherlands , Newzealand , Germany , UK. Its much more impressive given that US has to take care of 300 million people and still maintain such a high standard of life.

 

[Mista]

Japan is far behind US on HDI.

HDI depends on only 3 indicators, with GDP/GNI a major one. I'm talking about social progress which my chart above is much more comprehensive.

http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/#/11111111111

USA tops in ranking like average Income , wealth and Have the biggest houses in all OECD countries. Is ranked 8th in terms of quality of life above countries like Netherlands , Newzealand , Germany , UK.

I didn't deny that the US is rich. On average it's one of the wealthiest. But money above a certain level doesn't necessarily bring social progress which is arguably more important.

This index is crap; it's based on survey. Here's an example I randomly clicked:

When asked "How is your health in general?" 88% of people in the United States reported to be in good health, much more than the OECD average of 69% and one of the highest scores across the OECD.

When asked "How is your health in general?" only 35% of people in Japan reported to be in good health, much less than the OECD average of 69%, and one of the lowest scores in the OECD. Caution is required in making cross-country comparisons as the assessment can be affected by factors as cultural background. Despite the subjective nature of this question, answers have been found to be a good predictor of people's future health care use. Gender, age and social status may affect answers to this question.

Ironically those who are health-conscious scored lower.

When it comes to self-reported health, the US is ranked 1/38 here and Japan is 37/38. You believe that Americans, with lower healthy life expectancy than developing China, is healthier than Japan, with the longest life expectancy in the world, just because some obese Americans think they remain healthy while munching on fries?

 

[jhungary]

When you say the 50's you are actually quite correct in many respects. Chinese can use inflated (from forex accumulation but not really that much internal consumption) USD nominal as a reference to feel better for their raw GDP, but it does not disguise some extremely important consumption parameters (and the time they still lag by) which is all tied more into the freedom, social capital and business well being measured you indicated:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.PCAP.KG.OE?locations=US-CN

i.e raw GDP and flashy new infra only means so much compared to the quality makeup of that GDP and the relevance/ROI of the infra.

@gambit @Hamartia Antidote @Gomig-21 @F-22Raptor @jhungary

People looks at development in the surface and it's easy to get lost in it.

Infrastructure does not mean a great deal in national development. It's about how you spend you money into what kind of category, saying China is more modern than US because of China have new road and airport, is like saying North Korea is on the top 10 in world science because it have an active nuclear program.

Building something and maintaining something is different. When you build from nothing, it's always going to be a lot easier to maintain something when everything is developed, because by then everything is connected.

For example, the main road in front of where I live is full of pot hole for at least 5 years, why it wasn't fixed? Is it because we cannot fork out $100k to fill the pothole with new tarmac? Nope, my next door neighbour, which is in the road maintenance business, told me the reason why. We have $100k to put the new tarmac in the pothole, but to do that, we need to close the road for 10 days, (About 200 hours of work) and to do that, either we cut off the Artery road which make the next 2 suburb angry for 10 days, or we stretch it out and close the road between 12 to 5 am, which mean we need to work 40 days. Which is impossible, because if you pour the dig up the road and pour the glue it, it will set before you lay the tarmac, which mean if you do it this way, the only thing you will do is to keep pouring glue in...

 

[Nilgiri]

Which is impossible, because if you pour the dig up the road and pour the glue it, it will set before you lay the tarmac, which mean if you do it this way, the only thing you will do is to keep pouring glue in...

Yah there is lot of asset bubbles created this way (i.e effectively subsidize employment in construction) within China that is shielded from view (macro-economically) by its forex accumulation again. We have no idea what its like till something happens to expose the levers that prop it up etc. It is part of whole reason why China refuses to float its currency.

I had a funny video sent to me by my friend few weeks back. His brother is out on a construction job (hydro dam) in Manitoba....and his buddies there made a funny video of picking up tools etc from a basket, passing it around between themselves, human conveyor belt style...and then the last guy puts it back in the basket hehe. Your analogy reminded me of this somewhat.

 

[nahtanbob]

Mate it is a personal choice and does not mean they leave China because they hate it. For example I have a good life in Sweden but if I get the chance to live in Madina permanently, I will definitely move there and spend my life there.. Also many Chinese went to USA in 70's and 80's when it was not so developed but now it has reduced rather a lot of Chinese-Americans are emigrating back to China to benefit from the economic boon.

There are 36,000 chinese H-1b applicants
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default...rms Data/BAHA/h-1b-2007-2017-trend-tables.pdf

 

[war&peace]

There are 36,000 chinese H-1b applicants
https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports and Studies/Immigration Forms Data/BAHA/h-1b-2007-2017-trend-tables.pdf

And how conveniently you missed the number of Gangadeshis applying for H1b

​

So Gangadesh (India) is at the top with 247927 applicants in year 2017 and a total sum of 2,183,112 while Chinese are 296,313 which 7 times less despite having a larger population.