Macroscope | The US is revelling in China’s economic troubles at its own peril
- Beijing’s challenges cannot be properly analysed and understood in a context where China bashing is normalised
- The West should stop its petty rhetoric or risk escalating frictions into confrontation, to no one’s benefit
It is unwise to rejoice at the misfortunes of others because they may live to dance on your grave. This bit of homespun wisdom comes to mind as I observe the way in which much of the world seems to be delighting in emphasising China’s economic problems.
US President Joe Biden was sufficiently unrestrained (if not quite so country-specific as to mention China by name) when he warned that “when bad folks have problems, they do bad things”. Those are hardly the words of a major power leader who is supposed to exercise statesmanship and balance.
Fortunately, some others have adopted a more balanced view. One of those is Lyric Hughes Hale, a Chicago-based journalist who publishes the Hale China Report and who in January predicted that China’s economy would take time to recover from Covid-19 lockdowns – a sensible prediction given the depth of the downturn.
Hale, who with her late husband, economist David Hale, launched China Online, is not alone in this regard. Nicholas Lardy, a China economy specialist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) in Washington, also believes that the pessimism on China has been overdone.