The particular source here is not the Chinese government but the magazine the Economist and the consulting firm McKinsey. Both are very reputable.
You can go to China or some of the surrounding countries (SE Asia, Japan, Australia) and see for yourself. Or look at the sales reports from Apple. The massively growing Chinese middle class is quite a real thing.
Yet the reaction here is of scepticism, disbelief, denial.
I don't understand that.
No other topic (Europe, US, Africa, Middle-east ...) is met with same.
Yes, but just before the last two big financial crises, Americans were buying houses they couldn't afford, second and third cars, taking loans etc...
I live in Macau, and the Chinese government's recent policy of cracking down on corruption, money laundering and their history of 'massaging' the news, leaves even the Macanese, Hong Kongers and coastal mainlanders suspicious of any economic statistics coming out of the government. Foreign worker quotas here, and the drop in gamblers, VIP especially have resulted in 36% drops from last year. Gambling/Casinos generate 80% of Macau's GDP. I hold out hope for a progressive, free China, but after observing the yellow umbrella movement in Hong Kong, and the mainland's actions and words, I am in despair. The people have been under this type of rule for so long, and the rumors are that the current administration is only going after corruption when done by political rivals, while saving face with their own party.
I truly believe consumerism is going to be humbled by a crash here, and hopefully a restructuring to head up with honest accounting by government if they want to be taken serious in the world currency market.
This company just plays the normal MBA playbook in an echo room and every listens without thinking.
Just look at the former (some now bankrupt) companies that hired McKinsey. Amongst them Enron and Swissair.
The sentiment is mostly anti Chinese Government, not the nation / people.
China's Government has been infamous for lying about economic statistics for decades. Their unemployment rate has hardly changed since the 1980s. For a while - 2001 to 2009 - their real growth was so dramatic it didn't matter much that they were lying about everything. Now that the tide is going out on the world's second largest economy, it matters in a big way.
Consistent to that, I'd encourage people to use "The Chinese Government" rather than the more common "The Chinese" that English media loves to use when generalizing. Missing a single word makes it easy to blur the lines, e.g.:
"The Chinese are corrupt and never tell the truth."
"The Chinese are only good at at stealing and copying things."
"The Chinese cyber-threat ..."
On the other hand, I've noticed in Japan, even with the pervasive anti-China sentiment, news sources are keen to use "Chinese officials" or "China's central government."
"Why the strong anti-China sentiment on HN? I don't get it.
That's quite odd, I notice the opposite. I notice many pro China pieces here on hackernews. Whether it's talking about their green energy, growing economy, financial markets or what have you.
It says that you tend to notice more negative media & chatter about something you care about or have an interest in, regardless of reality.
And I think this might actually be the case here because the original commentor above wasn't "anti-China" at all. He was stating a contrary viewpoint. Being realistic doesn't mean something is automatically "anti". If there was an article about the U.S middle class growing this year, and someone posted a comment which disputed that, it wouldn't be an "Anti-American" comment.
Speaking of, I see more "what's with the anti-China comments?" more than I notice actual anti-China comments. In fact, I almost never see truly anti-China comments.
Being realistic is different from being contrary, which in turn is different from being a conspiracy theorist. Personally, I consider "Chinese government is fabricating economic statistics" a conspiracy theory territory.
You have a point that being mistaken is different from being hostile or anti, but we do call people "anti-vaccine" when they are just mistaken and as a result genuinely worried about vaccine. I think one should interpret "anti-China" the same way.
"More than 96% of respondents to the latest Wall Street Journal survey of 64 economists–not all of whom answered every question–said China’s gross-domestic-product estimates don’t accurately reflect the state of the world’s second-biggest economy.
“Official data are manufactured to fit the government’s narrative,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities."
That's what I'd expect from any middling-to-competent regime, not just the commies (though they of course do it too). For example, the Argentines are famous for making up exchange rates, and my own (American) government has a policy of systematically misreporting inflation and unemployment.
Fabricating statistics wholesale is conspiracy theory. Releasing statistics that are distorted in all sorts of ways because various government organizations have direct incentives to do so is pretty much a statement of fact.
In China, the statistics ARE controlled by one, non-objective party (Party? :-)), so conspiracy theories are somewhat justified.
Even in the much freer US, there are examples of (subtle) information manipulation. Such as releasing numbers that don't fit the government narrative :
- on a Friday afternoon (when all journalists are driving home or drinking at a bar)
It's not conspiracy theory territory, Li Keqiang the country's premier actually admitted that many provinces fabricate statistics to look better to Beijing. And there is tons of evidence that their statistics do not match reality. Realistic is China's economy cannot continue to defy gravity, the regular people aren't experiencing the miracle growth. Maybe the wealthy who have their hands in the pie, but for the other hundreds of millions of Chinese, there is no miracle.
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