09-18-2021, 08:03 AM
The CCP is not to be underestimated. Sometimes the things they do are hard for us westerners to understand but it helps a bit when you realize the differences in perspective. The west is obsessed with short term things. Our whole financial world runs on a quarterly cycle. Most people plan their lives a couple of years in advance. In politics, you have new elections every few years and thus policies keep swinging from left to right every few years. Change is constant, and often the aim of a change that has been made is to provide the benefit that is aimed for in a couple of years or less. It's all short term, especially politics. You make the moves you need to make so you get re-elected in the next election. Any sort of a political decision that, for example, costs money now and provides a benefit in 10 years is pretty much a negative thing since you will be seen as the one who spent money on "things that didn't work" and when the benefit is realized, it might very well be your opponent who is in the government then and they reap the popularity benefit of the decision made by you a decade ago.
China is different. They are playing the long-game. And I think it's a big part of how they went from being a poor agriculture focused country in the 1950's to being one of world's leading powers in 2020. They do not focus on short-term benefits but they choose to enact plans and policies that are good ones long-term... and it has worked brilliantly so far.
China is different. They are playing the long-game. And I think it's a big part of how they went from being a poor agriculture focused country in the 1950's to being one of world's leading powers in 2020. They do not focus on short-term benefits but they choose to enact plans and policies that are good ones long-term... and it has worked brilliantly so far.