I think you and I are talking on two different wavelengths. You are just looking at the PPP dollar value of an economy and totally ignoring the power of an economy in terms of what kind of goods it actually produces or what kind of technological edge it has all over the world.
Okay, good that at least now we're not using incorrect measures anymore. Gdp is indeed not the most accurate, but in order to have a comparative measure, it must always first be normalized, if you're comparing 2 different currencies.
But I am talking about economic power not just economic size measured by how many haircuts one country does in 1 year.
Or how many bogus insurances they sell?
Yes, Several provinces in China like Shaanxi or Hubei provinces combined may have more GDP than Germany. But what kind of world class companies does those provinces have compared to Germany?
The likes of Huawei, BYD, Alibaba, DJI, SAIC, Norinco etc etc? The list is pretty much endless. Creating world class products and pushing boundaries in more or less every sector. Something only achieved in US, maybe not even anymore today, but only during the heyday of the last cold war.
I am calling Germany shit. But that's only because of the scope of comparison when you try to compare them to China. It's like saying a district level boxing champion is shit, well yeah he's shit if compared to Mike Tyson. That's just reality.
China maybe producing the most steel in the world, but is it all high quality steel used for high tech products or just low quality steel used for steel rods in buildings?
Why would they need all to be higher grade than what they actually need for a given task? But yeah they are pushing boundaries on high quality materials overall.
China maybe producing the most cars in the world. But how many of those cars are actually designed in China with a Chinese brand How many of the sensors, chips and other high tech components inside a car are made in China?
China surpassed Japan in export auto sales.
All, in more premium models. Cheaper parts both "high" and "low" tech are found anywhere internationally (including technologically lower countries like even India) for budget cars.
Most of China's GDP from manufactuing is still contract manufacturing for foreign brands. That's the fact. A lot of the products made in China are full of foreign high tech components and just the assembly happens in China.
Where did you get these numbers from? Most of China's economy according to official reports is due to the internal consumption base.
During peacetime, companies select what components they want based on quality vs cheapness. Not all component products have their cheapest or most cost effective version found in China. That is just business. Complaining about it is like when Americans complain they have to use Chinese components. It's capitalism. However, China has the full range of components, and for products that pride themselves on only using local and the most high end brands, they can peruse those.
But is it changing? Yes, very fast. China is developing its own brands of cars, TVs, Phones. China is moving up the value chain and producing more of the high quality components.
But it still has ways to go before it catches up to the top of technological ladder. That's the hard numbers I care about. Not the amount of raw steel rods China makes.
From objective measures, it is among the top in terms of technological products as well. But just like with economy size, plurality doesn't mean final victory. Plurality is just the start of the fight, as the other, non Chinese actors, that have nearly as much share as China still need to be wrangled.
There is much remaining between plurality in tech, economy size, and the unipolar power that China should aim for.
But in order to accurately speak about developments, our understanding of the facts need to be accurate as well.
