Comment by TaylorAlexander
14 days ago
GDP and wealth are hard to compare because China does so much stuff for cheaper. They can build massive infrastructure projects like high speed trains, huge bridges and dams all for way cheaper than we do, so their money actually goes farther. That means even for the same GDP they have more productive capability.
Military is not the only way to exercise power - look at the Belt and Road initiative.
Demographics - how many PhDs are coming out of each country.
And obviously we’re banning DJI because they are the dominant player - we couldn’t compete economically so we’re using legal power instead. If the US was just better at building consumer drones this never would have happened.
Your first point about things being cheaper over there is true but that's not all there is to it. They're still in the basic infrastructure phase of growth. So they can build that much cheaper because people there get paid peanuts, and land is cheap. As soon as they reach a saturation point of prosperity close to where the US is now, they'll see prices spike to equal US levels. If this ever happens.
> Military is not the only way to exercise power - look at the Belt and Road initiative.
The military is the only thing that matters when the chips are really down. China can try to buy international favour with it's dodgy infrastructure deals, but that's not the same as deep, long-term alliances, and a competent military-industrial complex. The US has troops and advanced weapons stationed all over the place, including right next to China. I'd be amazed if the opposite ever becomes true.
> Demographics - how many PhDs are coming out of each country.
There's a fair bit more to demographics than the number of PhDs - not sure why you think this even matters.
> And obviously we’re banning DJI because they are the dominant player - we couldn’t compete economically so we’re using legal power instead. If the US was just better at building consumer drones this never would have happened.
Now it's true that DJI is the best, but this is not yet part of a broader trend where China is outcompeting the US on quality. And keep in mind that China is using its internal legal power to spend public money pushing companies such as Huawei, DJI, and Bytedance.