China didn't get that way by magic. They ran the same playbook that allowed Alexander Hamilton to snatch manufacturing from Great Britain to the US, and the US gave up manufacturing for the same reason the UK gave up manufacturing (suppression of labor interests).

It will be interesting to see what China does. They aren't ideologically committed to exclusively serving the interests of the wealthy, but they still have lots of rich people in the (ahem) Communist Party, so who knows.

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xanthor 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

China and Vietnam are the only countries worldwide which have executed bankers for corruption in recent decades. No ahem necessary.

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geysersam 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It's striking that they recently arrested one of the richest men in the country, the Evergrande founder, for fraud. Seems unthinkable in the US/Europe right now.

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applicative 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Were they guilty?

	▲	Danox an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The people in China that made the decision on that antifreeze in toothpaste, and the 300 pigs in the river or that graffiti tower in Los Angeles across from the Staples Center. I don’t think those people walked. That is not to say that in time they’ll start to do many of things that happens in the west where those at the 1% or 2% walk away, in time China may drop down to that level, on the other hand, I would like to believe the United States will start to have the same reaction that the country had when Sputnik went around the Earth and change course and I don’t mean sanctions, tariffs, wars, and threatening neighbors to the north and to the south.
	▲	xanthor 43 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Do you find that far-fetched?

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peezd 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I can't imagine it going any other way than what we've seen from every other country in your set of examples, honestly.

	▲	3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
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	▲	faitswulff 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		China actually penalizes, imprisons, and even executes its billionaires, so that’s different.

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applicative 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The industrialization of USA comes after the civil war, thus long after e.g. Charles Dickens, to say nothing of Hamilton.

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smallmancontrov an hour ago | parent [-]

Hamilton set the strategic agenda. Do you want to argue that US industrialization didn't follow the broad strokes of this plan?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Report_on_Manufactures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_School_(economics)

Parallel: the industrialization of China for the most part happened after Deng Xiaoping, but are people wrong to credit him for setting the course?

	▲	andelink 20 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I mean, Deng Xiaoping is/was a huge influence in _our_ lifetimes. It was only the 1970s, just fifty years ago, when he was effectively the head of state. That’s like yesterday. I’m not saying Hamilton doesn’t have the influence you’re describing, but it’s not really an equal comparison given the huge difference in timeframes. Late 1700s is a ways away vs the 70s.